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The circus has left the state

After this evening’s show in Jacksonville, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus will leave the state for colder climates. Each winter, beginning in late December, Ringling spends several weeks in Florida and then heads north. Again this year, animal advocates met the circus in West Palm Beach, Tampa, Miami, Orlando and in Jacksonville.

jax-demo_jan09c.jpgARFF’s demonstrations this week in Jacksonville were covered by two local television news stations. “Protestors fume over treatment of circus animals” was the headline of the story on CBS47/Fox 30. Click here to view the report by First Coast News.

During our protests outside Orlando’s Amway Arena last week we were encouraged when an arena employee told us that due to low ticket sales half of the arena concessions had been closed. Following the circus we received an e-mail from a woman who was handed a leaflet at an Orlando show: “The information given to me has absolutely changed my perspective on the circus,” she wrote. “My husband and I spoke about it while we attended the circus with our girls and we both agreed that that would be the last time we would ever buy tickets to a circus that uses animals for entertainment.”

In Miami we distributed thousands of pieces of literature- roughly 8,000 copies of our Ringling-specific handout and another 6,000 of our circus handout written for children. Following the final show on the 19th, we followed the elephants as they were marched back to the circus train and crowded into boxcars where they stood, chained by the legs, all night and during the long trip up to Jacksonville the following morning. At the train we met a local resident who had stopped to watch; he spoke clearly of the suffering of elephants in the circus. View our video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uww_J_ClocI

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