Barnum Bash Sets Up In Peoria
By: Sophie Nielsen-Kolding WMBD/WYZZ TV
Updated: October 11, 2012
PEORIA- The Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey rolled into the river city Thursday afternoon, setting up shop for a three day run.
Shows begin this Friday evening at 7:00 at the Peoria Civic Center.
"Ready to work tomorrow?" Circus clown Dean Kelley asked a camel. He's been a clown for more than a decade and is in a new city every week. But he said a life of travel is more than he could ask for.
"It's actually a dream come true. I mean I get to travel all over the county. I've been to all 48 states in the continent, so that's awesome and I get to perform for millions of people every year, bringing smiles to faces across the county. You can't beat it," Kelley said.
The circus cast and crew is more than 100 people, and Kelley said everyone helps set up.
"We work with each other every single day, we see each other every single day so we truly are a circus family," Kelley said.
Even though he loves the constant setting up and breaking down, Kelley said life on the road has its downsides.
"One of my least favorite things about being in a new city is not knowing where anything is! But luckily with GPS and computer technology I can find stuff on the internet pretty quick," he said.
But once he's on stage, he said it's all worth it.
"During the show I like to look out at the audience and I can see the kids, mom and dad and grandparents. Three generations of people sitting there in the seats 'oohing' and 'aahing' at the same thing," Kelley said.
Kelley says good family fun is getting harder to find, but to him that's what the circus is all about.
You can also catch the action this Saturday at 11:00, 3:00 and 7:00 and on Sunday at 1:00 and 5:00.
Shows begin this Friday evening at 7:00 at the Peoria Civic Center.
"Ready to work tomorrow?" Circus clown Dean Kelley asked a camel. He's been a clown for more than a decade and is in a new city every week. But he said a life of travel is more than he could ask for.
"It's actually a dream come true. I mean I get to travel all over the county. I've been to all 48 states in the continent, so that's awesome and I get to perform for millions of people every year, bringing smiles to faces across the county. You can't beat it," Kelley said.
The circus cast and crew is more than 100 people, and Kelley said everyone helps set up.
"We work with each other every single day, we see each other every single day so we truly are a circus family," Kelley said.
Even though he loves the constant setting up and breaking down, Kelley said life on the road has its downsides.
"One of my least favorite things about being in a new city is not knowing where anything is! But luckily with GPS and computer technology I can find stuff on the internet pretty quick," he said.
But once he's on stage, he said it's all worth it.
"During the show I like to look out at the audience and I can see the kids, mom and dad and grandparents. Three generations of people sitting there in the seats 'oohing' and 'aahing' at the same thing," Kelley said.
Kelley says good family fun is getting harder to find, but to him that's what the circus is all about.
You can also catch the action this Saturday at 11:00, 3:00 and 7:00 and on Sunday at 1:00 and 5:00.
Comments
People who believe that having elephants (& other wild animals in traveling circuses) is humane need to educate themselves, or just use your common sense and think about things for a minute. Simply go online and read up on it. If you don't want to do that, like I said, think logically. Think of the size of the elephant. Think about how and where the elephant would have to be kept during various times of a typical day, 365 days of the year, as part of a traveling circus. The FACTS are that elephants (& tigers & other wild animals) are horribly and cruelly confined in order to be transported about the country and only temporarily kept at the various locations for a few days. They are typically chained by the ankle and forced to stand such that they can move only a step or two in any direction, and kept this way almost every hour of each 24 hr. day. Ringling Bros. transports most of the time via trains 50 boxcars, with their Red and Blue Units each covering 16,000 miles annually to perform in 30-plus cities. Data in court case testimony re Ringling revealed that the elephants traveled 26 hours straight on average. Some legs extended beyond 70 hours without a break. The longest stretch: 100 hours on a 1,830-mile journey from Lexington, Kentucky, to Tucson, Arizona. Up to five elephants are crammed in each boxcar. The average elephant produces approximately 15 gallons of urine and 200-plus pounds of solid waste in a 24-hour period. Former circus workers described the unbearable stench when they opened the cars for water stops%u2014during which they typically replenished supplies without letting the animals out. For more on this read this Pulitzer Prize winning article: http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2011/10/ringling-bros-elephant-abuse?page=1 So I have only touched on the confinement. There also is the extremely well documented, and admitted to, physically abusive training techniques that are how the elephants are forced to do the "tricks" for the circusgoer's amusement. Just educate yourself by visiting any one of countless respected websites, such as those of ADI (Animal Defenders International), www.circuses.com, www.morebeautifulwild.com. Also there is an excellent very detailed extensive publication by Animal Defenders International on the Science of Suffering (re wild animals in traveling circuses) which you can read: https://www.ad-international.org/admin/downloads/SCS_US_rep_FINAL_Jun%2015%2008_LOW%20RES.pdf
Charron P.
October 12, 2012 at 12:34 pm
The overwhelming evidence of the abuse animals endure in Ringling Bros. service, as well as the $270,000 settlement fine paid by Ringling Bros. for violations of the Animal Welfare Act - the largest ever assessed to an animal exhibitor by the USDA - is irrefutable. http://www.ad-international.org/adi_usa/go.php?id=2493 Ringling Bros. dismissed this %u201Csettlement%u201D as %u201Cthe cost of doing business.%u201D Kenneth Feld, CEO of Feld Entertainment, testified under oath that his trainers routinely hit elephants with bullhooks, whip them, and use electric prods on them. He even admitted to witnessing this. http://motherjones.com/environment/2011/10/ringling-bros-elephant-abuse
Animals in circuses and traveling shows are subject to inhumane confinement: magnificent big cats like lions and tigers are housed in cramped cages, majestic elephants are shackled and chained in trucks and train box cars; training methods utilize violence, fear, and intimidation to make animals perform ridiculous unnatural stunts. For the few minutes you see animals %u201Cperforming%u201D they suffer a lifetime of misery. Not only is the physical abuse appalling, but the deprivation of any natural behaviors, choices and instincts is cruel.
Countries around the world, as well as municipalities in the United States, have partial or full bans on circus that use animals. The Traveling Exotic Animal Protection Act, H.R. 3359, is a bill that is extremely vital to the lives of these animals, to ending this cruelty and ensuring the safety of the public. This federal bill would amend the A.W.A. to restrict the use of exotic and non-domesticated animals in circuses and traveling shows. http://breakthechainus.com/
. The more knowledgeable the public becomes about the suffering of circus animals and the serious safety issues involved with using dangerous animals in performances, the less inclined they will be to support, promote, employ and attend circuses that abuse and exploit animals. We can end this abuse if we make a more informed and compassionate decision by not supporting this archaic cruel industry and supporting H.R. 3359.
Maria M.
October 11, 2012 at 11:57 pm
