NEWS RELEASE

Date: September 16, 2009

Contact: Matt Rossell, 503-890-5151, Catherine Doyle 323-301-5730

AS CIRCUS OPENS AND ZOO ASSOCIATION MEETS, ADVOCATES CALL FOR ZOOS TO TAKE A STAND AGAINST ELEPHANT ABUSE

Portland, Ore.–An ad in today's USA Today, sponsored by In Defense of Animals (IDA), urges the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) to sever ties with the circus industry and oppose the use of elephants in entertainment. It takes special aim at the Oregon Zoo's acting director Mike Keele for providing paid expert testimony on behalf of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus during a federal elephant abuse trial this year.

The half-page ad is published on the same day as AZA delegates are set to discuss their vision for the future of elephants at the AZA's annual conference at the Portland Convention Center.

"Circuses are the elephant in the room that the zoo industry just doesn't want to address," said Suzanne Roy, IDA Program Director. "Our ad aims to call attention to the fact that by remaining silent, or worse, by allowing its official to defend Ringling, the AZA is giving its tacit approval to the circus industry and its undeniable cruelty to elephants."

"It's time for the AZA to join the field scientists and conservationists around the globe who have condemned the use of elephants in circuses and other entertainment venues," concluded Roy.

A mountain of evidence documenting Ringlng's abusive practices was presented at a trial earlier this year in U.S. District Court, Washington, DC. These include routinely striking the elephants with bullhooks (heavy rods with steel hooks on the end), prolonged chaining of elephants (60-100 hours with out break while traveling; 16-22 hours per day while at the Ringling facility in Florida), and violently separating baby elephants from their mothers and training them through cruel confinement, isolation, physical punishment and negative reinforcement.

Also today, Ringling opens at Portland's Rose Garden. Recent undercover video footage documents the routine striking and whipping of elephants by this circus. Earlier this week, IDA sent a letter to the AZA, requesting that Keele, chair of the association's elephant specialist group, be censured for violating the AZA's code of ethics when he testified in defense of Ringling's elephant handling practices.