Other Viewing Options
Animal circuses are not only dangerous for the animals who are beaten with metal bullhooks and forced to perform confusing and stressful tricks, they can also pose a very real danger to the public, as seen in this video footage.
What started as a routine traffic patrol for Palm Bay, Florida, police officer Blayne Doyle 14 years ago would change his life forever. While on duty in February 1992, Officer Doyle was asked to respond to the arena where the Great American Circus was performing. A veteran police officer, Officer Doyle states, “I have seen my share of danger over the past four decades, but I can assure you that although I've been shot and stabbed; been in automobile, motorcycle, and airplane accidents; and been in more than my share of other life-threatening situations, I have never seen a situation as frightening—or one I was less capable of controlling—than that day that Janet snapped and ran amok.” Janet was an 8,000-pound rampaging elephant who was carrying six people on her back, including five children.
Officer Doyle was astonished to learn that neither the owner of the circus nor Janet's trainer, Tim Frisco, had any system or plan in place to respond to such a crisis. Frisco simply stood by and screamed at the police to shoot Janet. To his horror, Officer Doyle realized that was the only thing that he could do. Fifty-seven bullets were pumped into Janet, but it required the use of armor-piercing bullets, specially designed by the military to penetrate steel, before she finally died.
In the Name of Janet
There was no way that Officer Doyle could simply put Janet's death behind him—he continues to be haunted by what he was forced to do. After months of research, he came to an inescapable conclusion: The only way to prevent a similar tragedy is to stop using elephants in circuses and traveling shows altogether.
Elephants used in circuses and traveling shows are controlled by force and by fear and memory of punishment. Chains and bullhooks (wooden or fiberglass rods with sharp metal hooks or gaffs on one end) are standard tools used by handlers to discipline elephants and keep them in check. But sometimes these intelligent, emotional, and sensitive animals simply snap because of the years of constant servitude and beatings. A bullhook will never protect the public from a rampaging elephant. Lethal force is the only way.
Officer Doyle, now retired, has worked tirelessly since that awful day to spread the word to fellow law enforcement officers and humane authorities about the dangers of forcing elephants to perform. He has spoken at public meetings and fraternal organizations, written letters to the editor, and testified before the U.S. Congress in support of a bill to prohibit the use of elephants in circuses and for rides.
“I think these elephants are trying to tell us that zoos and circuses are not what God created them for,” he reflects. “But we have not been listening.”
About Janet's Trainer
Years after Janet was gunned down, PETA caught her trainer, Tim Frisco, beating elephants with the Carson & Barnes Circus. In the video footage, an elephant named Becky screams in pain as an obscenity-spewing Frisco rips into her flesh with a bullhook and instructs other trainers to hurt the elephants. Frisco was also videotaped shocking elephants with an electric prod.
What You Can Do
Attend only animal-free circuses, such as Cirque du Soleil and the New Pickle Circus, and steer clear of traveling shows that exploit animals, such as Ringling Bros. View a list of animal-free circuses.
Check our list of circus schedules to find out if any animal circuses are coming to your town in the future. Contact PETA's activist liaison for ideas on standing up for circus animals and discouraging people from going to cruel circuses—and for free leaflets, stickers, and posters.
Make your voice heard! If Ringling Bros. or another animal circus is coming to your town, keep an eye out for stories about it in your local newspaper. Responding with letters to the editor that set the record straight about the miserable lives of animals in the circus is a great way to inform thousands of people.
