PETA Inflating an Elephant in the Room

Plans to Protest Circus

You may have noticed a rumbling in downtown D.C. Tuesday. That was nothing to worry about -- just the elephants parading their way through the streets to mark the arrival of the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus.

But one group in particular isn’t too happy about the arrival of the circus.

PETA had asked the D.C. government to shut down the elephant parade, according to DCist, but they asked too late. So instead PETA is planning to break out a massive, inflatable faux elephant that will lead a group of 100 protesters in confronting circus ticket-holders.

“Washingtonians would run screaming from the big top if they knew that elephants used by Ringling suffer a lifetime of abuse,” PETA Director Delcianna Winders said in a statement to DCist. “As infants, they're torn away from their mothers and beaten into submission -- and older, arthritic elephants...are still forced to perform painful contortions despite their ill health.”

DCist says PETA will also use “shock and awe” tactics as people enter the Verizon Center, including graphic photos of baby elephants.

The circus is at the Verizon through Sunday, and will be in Fairfax, Va. April 14 to 24.
 

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