Ringling Brings Animal Abuse, Criminal Conduct to a City Near You: Is Your City Next?

For the last six months, PETA staffers have been monitoring the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus to record the circus's abusive treatment of animals,especially elephants. Even seasoned PETA members were flabbergasted by the depths that Ringling has sunk to in its efforts to prevent us from witnessing what happens to animals on the road.

These Ringling employees are a far cry from the skilled professionals Ringling claims to employ:

Sacha Houcke assaults	Alex Vargas is indecent	Not kid-friendly behavior

Ringling carnies:

• Curse at us
• Direct lewd behavior at us
• Give us "the finger"
• Throw things at us
• Assault us
• Threaten us with vehicles and animals
• Intentionally obstruct our passage on public rights-of-way
• Use gates, trucks, and people to intentionally block our view of animals
• Make false claims to police

See the Abuse That Ringling Wants Hidden

Despite Ringling's efforts to hide the truth, PETA has documented the abusive use of steel-tipped bullhooks, bloody wounds inflicted on elephants as they are walked from local arenas to trains, and chronically lame elephants who are forced to travel, perform, and endure chaining.

Bury the Evidence

Since bullhooks easily puncture an elephant's sensitive skin, the circus uses a gray powder called Wonder Dust to conceal bloody wounds. When placed on fresh cuts, scrapes, and punctures, Wonder Dust hides injuries because it so closely matches the elephant's own skin color.

Family Fun? Nah, You Should Probably Hide the Children

Parents and law enforcement officials be warned: Ringling hires people with sordid criminal histories, including people who have turned out to be pedophiles and fugitives. Ringling employees have been arrested or convicted—either while with the circus or prior to their employment—for the following:

• Possession of child pornography
• Sexual battery
• Aggravated bank robbery
• Felony drug possession
• Murder
• Burglary
• Assault and battery
• Disorderly intoxication

Even employees in starring roles—like head animal trainer Sacha Houcke, who assaulted a PETA staffer—have violent tendencies. Houcke pleaded guilty to harassment and disorderly conduct charges and paid a $300 fine after he assaulted his daughter in University Park, Pennsylvania, in 2005. According to two employees of the Bryce Jordan Center, Houcke choked his daughter, pushed her to the ground, and punched her in the face while they were working with horses.

Is Ringling Coming Your Way?

• Contact us to find out how you can help document the abusive treatment of animals that Ringling is so desperate to hide.
• Forward this to a friend or post it on your favorite online chat or bulletin board.
• Don't support Ringling or any other circus that uses animal acts, and ask your friends and family not to either. View our list of cruelty-free circuses.

Aiding and Abetting

Most police officers whom PETA staffers encountered were highly professional, but some turned a blind eye to Ringling’s antics. On several occasions, apparently in concert with Ringling, police deliberately impeded our work:

Memphis, Tennessee

• Police intentionally obstructed our filming.
• Police denied PETA staffers access to a public sidewalk.

• Police ignored PETA’s 911 call reporting a bloody bullhook wound on an elephant.
• Police illegally seized our videotapes that documented bullhook abuse.
• Police dismissed our cruelty-to-animals complaint.
• Police accused a local activist of making a false claim about Ringling’s obscene comments in order to get police to take a cruelty-to-animals complaint seriously.

• Police falsely accused a PETA staffer of “looking for trouble” after Ringling’s head elephant trainer Sacha Houcke hit him—as he was standing on public property—with the handle of a bullhook, kicked him, and directed elephants onto a median in an attempt to physically intimidate him.