Dear      :

I understand that [name of event] will feature [description of animal act]. My family and I will not attend an event where animals are exploited.

While it may be too late to alter this year's event, when making next year's plans, please follow the progressive lead of Lions Club International (LCI), who recently advised its clubs to beware of using "circuses and other events that may abuse animals used as part of the entertainment." In its September 2000 online newsletter, LCI stated, "Organizations that may use inherently dangerous wildlife, such as elephants, tigers, lions, bears, and primates, may pose a potential safety hazard to the public and could raise ethical concerns regarding the humane treatment of animals."

Many progressive communities have banned animal acts altogether within their city limits. In testimony before the recent ban in Braintree, MA, a board member of the South Shore Humane Society called the lives of circus and performing animals "intolerable, atrocious and inhumane...I think 50 years from now, people will look back at this period of time and they will be amazed at what we did to animals in the circus."

Animals stolen from the wild and sold to traveling animal acts and circuses lead miserable lives. They cannot satisfy even the most natural behaviors. This leads to extreme stress, which manifests itself in abnormal behaviors such as constant pacing, tail biting, eating excrement, bar chewing and constant wobbling. Tigers pace back and forth in tiny cages. Elephants, often shackled in chains by their front and back legs, cannot not even take a step forward or backward, or they are confined to electrified pens, oftentimes directly on pavement. Animals in circuses are on the road in boxcars for up to 50 weeks out of the year. They get very little exercise and are cramped in cages or pens their entire lives. When animals cannot take it any longer, they rebel, causing injury and sometimes death to trainers and spectators alike.

You should also be concerned about the danger posed to public health. According to an April 20, 2001 press release, "Thousands of children are being exposed to dangerous E. coli bacteria at petting zoos and county fairs, the government said releasing new warnings about farm animal exhibits. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cited E. coli outbreaks last year that sickened 56 people, including dozens of children, at a dairy farm in Pennsylvania and a petting zoo in Washington state."

Please, for the sake of the animals and the safety of the public, implement a formal policy against using animal acts. There is enough other wholesome entertainment available that using animals in this way shouldn't be necessary.

My family, neighbors, co-workers, and friends will be boycotting [name of event] and look forward to hearing that any future events you schedule will only include cruelty-free entertainment.

Sincerely,

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