Recap: Garden Brothers Circus

Thank you to everyone who came out for our seven demonstrations in front of the Garden Brothers Circus!  Darren wins the Demo Derby, having come to a heroic six shows! Thanks also to Carley, Justin, Bob, Lisa, Terri, Beth, Carol H, Katie, Tina, Tania, Lizzie, JP, Bubbie, Deborah, Mariah, Meg, Morgan, Kenneth, and Sevin.  Thanks to Darren, Tina, JP & Bubbie for leading demonstrations.  Thanks to Rochester for only sprinkling on us for a short while!  We ended with a bang with eleven activists Sunday evening.  Darren reported that with so many activists, non-circus-going cars passing gave a lot of positive reactions.

We were interviewed!  Tina was interviewed on Channel 10 News for what ended up being their ad for the circus.  They picked out the most radical statement I made and cut all I said about why we were there.  When she interviewed the manager of Garden Brothers Circus and he said the animals are like their babies, she already had the list of their numerous Animal Welfare Act violations but didn’t call him on it.  Bubbie was interviewed on Spectrum Cable News with much better results.  Thanks, Bubbie, great job!  Bob was interviewed by YouTuber DavyV about the circus and veganism generally – outstanding explanations Bob!  See part 1 and part 2 (with Darren!).

Two fearless activists went inside the circus Friday night and got behind-the-scenes footage of the elephants (see below). This is classic stereotypy, abnormal behavior resulting from deprivation, visual evidence of suffering and stress. Here is another video of an elephant exhibiting the same distress at a Garden Brothers’ show in Pennsylvania over a year ago.