Animal-welfare activists and a pro-circus group are at odds in Eureka Springs as the first circus to perform in the tourist town in decades prepares for two shows Nov. 5 at Lake Leatherwood City Park.
The situation has the City Council considering a ban on future circuses that feature animals, but if it passes, the Eureka Springs Carnival Association wants to force a public vote on the issue.
An ordinance is being drafted for review at the council's meeting today.
Rachel Brix, who owns a pet grooming shop in Eureka Springs, said she took the issue to the council's attention because she's concerned that circus animals may be abused. It's too late to stop the shows Nov. 5, Brix said, but the ordinance could prevent future performances.
"Keeping elephants in chains and confining wild animals in small cages and forcing them to perform unnatural tricks for the sole purpose of human entertainment is increasingly hard to justify in our advanced society," Brix told the council at its Oct. 13 meeting.
About 50 cities in 21 states have bans, Brix said, and she believes Eureka Springs would be the first in Arkansas.
Carson & Barnes Circus of Hugo, Okla., has several performances scheduled for Arkansas in November besides those in Eureka Springs. The circus's other Arkansas shows include Blytheville on Nov. 2; Walnut Ridge on Nov. 3; Yellville/Summit on Nov. 4; and Rogers on Nov. 6, 7 and 8. Two performances will be held daily, except for Nov. 8 in Rogers, when three performances are scheduled.
The circus performs in 220 cities a year, said Kristin Parra, an office manager for Carson & Barnes. Traveling with the show are about 80 workers and 40 animals, including two elephants, camels and a llama.
Brenda Tenan, vice president of the Eureka Springs Carnival Association, said Friday that voters in the tourist town should decide the issue, not the City Council.
The circus is being opposed by "an extreme minority" of the city's residents, Tenan said.
"We don't want the ordinance to be passed based on a minority," she said. "We want it to be up to a vote."
That would require a petition drive to get the signatures necessary to force an election. City Clerk Ann Armstrong said 133 signatures would be required, based on the number of Eureka Springs residents who voted in the previous election for governor.
Tenan said she was surprised by the opposition to the circus.
"I knew we were going to get some protests to it, but we didn't expect them to be this loud, this vocal," she said.
Money raised through the circus will go to the city's 21st Century After School Program, which provides after-school and summer care to children in kindergarten through the eighth grade, Tenan said.
Jerry Milligan of Springfield, Mo., a representative of Carson & Barnes Circus, spoke at the Oct. 13 council meeting and said the circus's animals are treated humanely. He said he's never seen an injured elephant performing.
Parra said animal-welfare organizations have been trying for 20 years to shut down the circus.
Among those groups is People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which sent out a news release Tuesday commending the City Council for voting unanimously to draft the ordinance.
"Kind people are appalled by the thought of a circus such as Carson & Barnes chaining, beating and shocking elephants and other animals in their city," a news release quoted PETA Foundation Deputy General Counsel Delcianna Winders as saying. "PETA looks forward to seeing Eureka Springs join the progressive cities across the U.S. that have taken a firm stand against cruel circuses that profit off animals' suffering."
The release references a 1999 undercover video of one man telling another to inflict pain on Carson & Barnes elephants to get them to obey commands.
"It's almost 20 years old," Parra responded. "He is an elephant training consultant that we rely on, on occasion."
Parra said Carson & Barnes uses cattle prods on elephants "as a last resort" and has stopped using blow torches to trim elephant hair, something that helps control the animals' parasites.
Parra said people can visit the animals at any time of the day when the circus is in town, and educational programs are held in the mornings while the circus is on tour. Circus animals are regularly inspected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, she said.
Brix said the proposed ordinance will target traveling shows and won't affect the Great Passion Play or Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge, which are both outside Eureka Springs. The Passion Play uses several animals, including camels, in its performances, and Turpentine Creek has large cats, including tigers.
Alderman James DeVito said the ordinance is being carefully worded to apply specifically to circus animals and similar animal performances. A monkey used in the magic show at Intrigue Theater will be exempt, as will rabbits at East By West, a gift shop in Eureka Springs, he said.
Yume Leavell, owner of East By West, said she was worried that the ordinance might apply to her "working bunnies," so she's waiting to see the final wording. Leavell has two locations with rabbits that use their mouths to pass coins, bills, receipts, credit cards and pens to customers.
Leavell said she's concerned that if cities ban the circus, it would affect revenue and adversely affect the circus animals.
"If you don't want to support them, don't go out and see them," she said of the circus. "But they have to have a way to feed them and take care of the vet bills."
NW News on 10/27/2014