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As more and more circuses drop animal acts and opt for thrilling shows that feature only talented human performers, animal exhibitors are getting desperate and turning to new ways to exploit animals. One of them, Carson & Barnes Circus, has started carting elephants to county fairs for forced performances, rides, and public encounters. These elephants have spent a lifetime performing in the circus and have endured decades of violent training. Carson & Barnes’ longtime head trainer, who still works for the outfit, was caught on video beating elephants with sharp, steel-tipped bullhooks and instructing trainers to sink and twist the weapons into the animals’ flesh until they screamed in pain.
Now, Carson & Barnes is taking its elephant exploitation to the fair circuit, using some of the same elderly elephants it has abused in circuses for decades. These elephants are now a carnival sideshow at county fairs. Every fair that books this act is supporting Carson & Barnes’ elephant abuse.
When these elephants aren’t hauled across the country and forced to perform, they are exploited at a roadside zoo in Oklahoma, where they’re forced to participate in dangerous encounters under threat of punishment. Footage documents handlers at the facility violently hitting and yanking on elephants with bullhooks and even forcing one to lie down in her own feces.
Please join us in telling county fairs to stop hosting Elephant Encounter and other cruel traveling wild animal acts. The elephants in these acts deserve better and must be retired to an accredited sanctuary where they’d never again be forced to perform.