Information The Worcester City Council is considering a ordinance that would ban circuses and traveling shows from using animals in their performances.
Councilor-at-large Konstantina Lukes, among a group of councilors who put forward the proposal, said she's worried about the use of endangered animals, especially Asian elephants, in the shows.
Ringling Bros. says if such a law were passed, the circus would not return to Worcester.
"The Asian elephant has been the symbol of Ringling Bros. for 142 years and we're not going to leave them at the city limits," said Stephen Payne, Vice President of Corporate Communications for Ringling's parent company, Feld Entertainment.
Lukes is proposing the city draft legislation similar to a model ordinance written by Born Free USA, an animal rights group that fights against the use of animals for entertainment.
The law would bar all shows featuring "exotic animals," including elephants, monkeys, big cats such as tigers, and others. The model ordinance does not cover farm animals.
Councilors Michael J. Germain and Joseph C. O'Brien both said during the Sept. 17 council meeting that they supported the ban.
"It's just a personal feeling that I have," said Germain.
Germain said several years ago, he attended a carnival -- not Ringling Bros. -- at the DCU Convention Center.
"I went in and walked out," Germain said, "because I was somewhat horrified by the way these huge animals were in these small little things."
He added that Ringling Bros. has a better capacity to handle the animals, but he favored the ban on all traveling animal shows.
Ringling Bros. makes one or two trips to Worcester each year. Its "Dragons" show is at the DCU Center now until Monday, Oct. 14.
Last month, the city council voted to send the proposed ordinance back to committee until the city manager's office could report back on the economic impact losing the circus would have.
Lukes said the economic info might sway other council members, though the data wouldn't change her opinion.
"It's only one visit a year," Lukes said.
As the circus pulled into town this week, the site of elephants being bathed outside the DCU Center on Commercial Street drew a small mid-morning crowd. Mike Kujawski and some co-workers from the nearby unemployment office walked over to take in the show.
Kujawski said he didn't believe there was anything inherently wrong with the circus, so long as the animals were being treated well. "It looks like they're doing ok," Kujawski said, as he watched a team of trainers hose down five elephants across the street.
But his co-worker, a woman who declined to be named, said she had heard awful stories about the treatment of circus elephants.
"I'm surprised they're not chained now," she said.
Born Free USA and other animal rights groups were involved in a more than decade long lawsuit against Ringling Bros over its treatment of elephants. A federal judge in 2009 ruled the groups had no standing to sue, and an appeals court upheld the ruling in 2011.
The group says circus elephants are routinely poked, struck and shocked into performing tricks that are unnatural and frightening to them. They travel 11 months of the year, chained, in non-climate controlled containers standing in their own waste, the group says.
"While many people associate the circus with "safe, wholesome, family fun" — an association promoted aggressively by the circus PR machine — the truth is much darker. Government inspection reports reveal ongoing mistreatment of animals in circuses, as well as failures to provide the basic minimal standards of care required by law.
Payne, the spokesman for the circus, said such legislation was unnecessary because of state and local laws that cover how animals are to be treated. He said the circus is subject to unannounced state and federal inspections, and has veterinary technicians who travel with the animals 24 hours a day.
Ringling Bros. also runs an Asian elephant conservation center in Florida.
"I would invite the families of Worcester to come out and see for themselves how the animals are thriving in our care," Payne said.