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The Traditional Circus Gets A Win
I’m not surprised but I’m not hearing a lot of people talking about The Humane Society, The ASPCA, and others, having to pay Ringling Bros. for misleading people about how they treat their elephants. Is this significant? Will people think twice the next time their heart strings are tugged by animal rights groups? Or does this just put off the inevitable end of the traditional circus as we know it. And please, no comments regarding how you feel about clowns.
Published in General
Maybe there’s hope for Mark Steyn in his legal troubles yet.
That’s great Joe, but is there really a circus that has a unicorn and a pegasus? And you don’t even mention this?
The most amazing part of this story was the Humane Society guy trying to tell the circus how they should spend their settlement money. But yes, we’ll probably see this form of entertainment banished before long, no matter how inhumane it is or isn’t.
I liked the part where the Humane Society got named as an “independent racketeer” in a RICO beef. Somehow, that just makes me smile.
I thought the animal circuses were gone, except for the ones with cute dogs.
Cirque du Soleil seems to kill off their performers regularly as they fall from trapezes, etc. I am amazed Cirque has not been shut down by the bleeding hearts.
Siegfried in Los Vegas got mauled by his tiger trying to be helpful, so there is a case of the animal hurting the human. That seemed to be quite acceptable to the crowd and media circus afterwards.
I’m going to put in my standard plug here for local animal shelters and humane societies.
Please support them.
They are not part of the national organizations mentioned here, both of which are largely political shill groups.
And most of them they do really good work.
No doubt. But at least according to the article cited, the nat’l organization was trading on that good will & credibility to just blatantly lie.
We support our local SPCA no-kill shelter. It sems that it’s the national versions of these organizations (Humane Society, Chamber of Commerce, etc.) that become corrupted, much like the Federal government. No, keep supporting the local chapters.
What I liked best about this story is that it may be a glimpse into a possible future where whoever loses pays. Frivolous suits are fun until the bill comes…
Tort reform is still only a dream, given our current Democrat donor system, but we can wish. Did you read the judges actual comments to the plaintiffs? Precious!
On a slightly related note, read Derek Hunter over on Townhall about boycott effectiveness. Thought provoking.
You bring up an interesting observation: it seems like we already have loser pays. What are the circumstances that allow this now?
This was a settlement; the losers here decided to pay rathr than go to court and risk being legally defined as a criminal organization.
My daughter volunteered for years at the local “no kill” shelter as a surgical vet assistant in a spay/neuter clinic. So we donate locally. But there are always some CoC who are just cruel. Her neighbor for instant, allowing her horse to die hanging from a fence, and we suspect hitting her service dog with a shovel necessitating surgery to sew his chest muscles back together just a week ago. I’ve met a few circus workers, and those who are cruel to the animals generally get fired. Those animals are after all their bread and butter.
When discussing the positions of “the Humane Society”, is it very important to specify that you are talking about The Humane Society of the United States, which is solely a lobbying organization and does not operate a single animal shelter.
It’s important because there are plenty of animal shelters out there that use the “humane society” label in their names, and they are not affiliated with the HSUS in any way, and should not be tarnished by the HSUS’ inanity.
Kay and Misth, I am in full agreement with you both. I have no patience with someone who would mistreat an animal. But there has never been any evidence that Ringling Bros. Has failed to care for their animals.
That’s just it. As a I kid was always more interested in the animals and would spend time away from the big tent. Never saw any abuse, and was told by one of the workers later in life that anyone seen abusing an animal was fired. That is just my take on it, as I never was involved with investigating any charges of abuse. I have been involved in horse and dog training and we never abused our animals, and my daughter still doesn’t.
Along with PETA, these idiot animal rights groups want animals to be classified as “companions” rather than property. Not acknowledging that people are more likely to treat their property better than a fellow earth travelers. Why would, say, a NASCAR driver, take a sledge hammer to his car just because no one was watching.
Wow. It’s almost like it makes for a better system to have an organization be small and local as opposed to being large and national. There ought to be a political movement to espouse that sort of thing.
Then they’d better go to great pains to separate themselves from the national organization, before they become tarnished by the association. And looking at the history of these orgs, the politics seems to eventually filter down to the local levels. “Oh, we’re local Democrats, we’re not like those Democrats in Washington”. Same principle. Local shelters would be well advised to loudly server ties with the national Human Society, and have a different local name: the Independent *Insert Name* County Animal Shelter, something like that.
Would you tell a church that it should stop calling itself [insert denomination here] because [insert denomination here] leaders in Washington, or wherever, are a bunch of idiots?
Should a CITGO franchise owner be punished for the actions of the Venezuelan government?
Local humane societies had the name first. It’s the Humane Society of the United States that has dishonestly appropriated the brand for its own financial gain. It is not an umbrella organization, an oversight organization, a certification body, or a representative agent for animal shelters. It quite simply took the name “Humane Society” in order to trick American donors into thinking that money given to the HSUS would be distributed to shelters around the country.
Admittedly, i you look at newly-founded animal shelters around the country, few of them use the SPCA or humane society branding, for the very reason you mention.