Article available online at http://articles.boston.com/2011-05-29/news/29601729_1_wild-animals-cole-bros-circuses

Activists look to ban animal circuses
MARSHFIELDCole Bros. defends use of wild animals
May 29, 2011|By Jennette Barnes, Globe Correspondent

The circus is coming to town, maybe for the last time, if activists get their wish.

Animal welfare activists hope to ban wild-animal circuses in Marshfield, home of the Marshfield Fairgrounds, where Cole Bros. Circus of Florida is scheduled to perform June 20-21. Officers of the South Shore Humane Society and a handful of area residents decried the use of wild animals in circuses at a hearing earlier this month for Cole Bros.’ annual entertainment license.

The South Shore Humane Society sends packages of information to local authorities whenever a circus license comes up, according to organization president Mary Connolly, who said a number of communities in the Boston area have some form of circus ban.

Two people who spoke against circuses at the hearing before Marshfield selectmen, cousins Matthew Sprague of Marshfield and Meredith Sprague of Kingston, said after the session that they were interested in starting petitions in their hometowns. Later, though, they indicated they might not be ready to take on the task at this time.

“We have both been busy, but we’re definitely still interested in getting the story out there,’’ Matthew Sprague said in an e-mail.

Talk of sending the matter to Town Meeting started when John Hall, chairman of the Board of Selectmen, said that voters, not selectmen, should address the debate on animal cruelty in circuses. The board approved the license by a vote of 3-0.

Town Administrator Rocco Longo said he would work with any resident who wants to propose a petition article for a special Town Meeting.

During the hearing, debate touched on Cole Bros.’ record of animal treatment and whether keeping and training wild animals is inherently cruel.

Connolly alleged that the US Department of Agriculture has “a laundry list of violations’’ on record for Cole Bros. Circus. However, USDA spokesman David Sacks said the circus does not carry a USDA license because it no longer owns its animals, and the agency regulates animals, not circuses.

In the past few years, Cole Bros. did not renew its animal licenses, contracting with outside entities instead. But in 2006, when the circus did own animals, it sold two elephants in a manner that violated the law.

At the selectmen’s meeting, a booking agent for Cole Bros. read a prepared statement in which the company admitted that Cole Bros. and its owner, John Pugh, each pleaded guilty on Feb. 22 to a misdemeanor violation of the Endangered Species Act. The circus sold two Asian elephants in 2006 without ensuring the buyer had the proper permits before transferring ownership, according to the statement.