PETA Catches Ringling Mistreating Elephants

Ringling Trainer Inflicts Bloody Bullhook Wound on Elephant in New Video Footage

PETA and Austin-based Action for Animals documented bullhook abuse by a Ringling Bros. trainer in Austin in July 2006. The video footage—just released to PETA by Austin police—shows that the trainer struck an elephant named Tonka with a sharp steel-tipped bullhook, prompting her to react with a series of squealing vocalizations. Moments later, a bloody wound the size of a quarter can be seen behind her left earflap. Please watch the video footage and send it to your friends.

Ringling Abuses Elephants With Sharp Metal Bullhooks

Watch PETA’s video that shows Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus abusively hooking elephants and disabled elephants limping to the arena

PETA captured on video Ringling elephant trainer Troy Metzler, known as “Captain Hook” to his coworkers, viciously hooking elephants with a sharp metal bullhook. In one incident, Metzler sunk the hook into the underside of an elephant’s sensitive trunk, then forcefully yanked the hook toward him. In the second incident, Metzler approached an elephant from the front and violently hooked her on the right side of her trunk. Each time, the elephants reacted by curling up their trunks and jerking their heads away to avoid further attacks. The incidents were captured on videotape during the circus’s February 1-5, 2006, stay in Greenville, South Carolina.

Ringling’s Lame Elephants Suffer on the Road

PETA also found that Ringling uses disabled elephants in both its red and blue units. The elephants, unable to bend their front legs, limp from railcars to arenas, where they are forced to perform physically grueling tricks despite their painful conditions. The animals likely suffer from arthritis, a deadly ailment that is common in captive elephants. At least eight of the 24 elephant deaths at Ringling since 1992 have been attributable to either osteoarthritis or a chronic foot problem. Chaining, extreme confinement, standing on hard surfaces, and performing difficult tricks may make an arthritic elephant’s condition even worse.

Painful Pressure Wounds

Many of the elephants traveling with Ringling appear to suffer from large pressure wounds, which are like bed sores, on their hips and faces. Some of the wounds appear to be wet and crusty, indicating chronic irritation or possible infection. Ringling does not even bother to provide its elephants with soft surfaces to rest upon.

What Elephant Experts Say

After reviewing PETA’s footage, Mel Richardson, D.V.M., wrote, “[T]he force used to strike the elephant in both instances was excessive, unnecessary, and outside any normal training. …
[T]he hit did result in the animal needlessly suffering. … It appears that [the lame elephant] is still performing routines that probably require rapid movement and a high degree of flexibility, which, in her condition, is causing her discomfort and distress.”

Carol Buckley, founder of The Elephant Sanctuary, wrote,

“[I]t is my professional opinion that the footage of Ringling’s elephant trainer hooking an elephant shows unnecessary heavy-handed use of the bullhook…Elephants have extremely sensitive skin that can easily be injured by bullhook use.” And in reference to the lame elephant Buckley stated, “I am concerned about this elephant as she is obviously unable to bend at the wrist yet is being forced to walk on unnaturally hard surfaces...she should receive exercise, but not forced exercise on unnaturally hard surfaces that will exacerbate her problem.”

Is the USDA Protecting Animals … or Ringling?

PETA videotaped the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspection conducted by the agency’s Eastern Region office in response to our complaint about a crippled elephant in Ringling’s red unit. The inspector should have monitored the elephants as they walked, so that she could closely examine each elephant for an irregular gait, stiff joints, swelling, and signs of pain. Incredibly, the USDA inspector spent less than six minutes on her inspection, looking primarily at one elephant who was in a small pen that contained four elephants who stood in place, barely moving. The disabled elephant should have been promptly taken off the road, but after the USDA found “no non-compliances,” she was left to suffer.

Audit Blasts USDA Enforcement of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA)

The USDA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG), which performs audits and investigations of the agency’s programs and operations, released a scathing audit in September 2005. The OIG audit found that the USDA’s Eastern Region office, which is responsible for the oversight of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, is lax in punishing licensees when people or animals are endangered. Findings indicate that the USDA is deficient in both inspection and enforcement practices, which compromises public safety and the humane care and treatment of the animals in its Eastern Region. The audit determined that no action was taken against violators even after investigations confirmed violations of the AWA.

Pending Investigations

The USDA currently has four pending investigations into Ringling for alleged violations of the Animal Welfare Act, including those listed below:

• In December 2005, two elephants allegedly ran amok in an arena and suffered serious injuries after escaping from a handler.
• In August 2004, an 8-month-old elephant was destroyed after he fell from a circus pedestal during a training exercise, fracturing both hind legs.
• Also in August 2004, a Ringling handler was videotaped repeatedly striking a chained elephant with a bullhook in what was described by the Oakland Zoo’s elephant manager as clear abuse.
• In July 2004, a lion died of apparent heatstroke in a poorly ventilated boxcar while the circus train traveled through the Mojave Desert.