Having done everything it could to successfully ban carriage horses (except actually ban carriage horses) animal advocacy group NYCLASS has refocused its efforts on another animal rights atrocity: The circus.
Executive Director Allie Feldman told the Daily News that animals used in the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus—which will be returning to Barclays Center next week—are forced to endure inhumane treatment that has no place in New York City.
"Animals in nature don’t naturally wear tutus and stand on their hind legs," Feldman observed astutely. "To get an elephant to do that, you have to basically beat the animal into submission."
Circus brass (ha) regarded the accusations with disdain, with Stephen Payne, VP of Ringling's parent company, Feld Entertainment, saying that eliminating the elephant portion of the program would result in its cancellation. Can you imagine?
"This is another attempt by an organization with a radical animal rights political agenda to tell people not just in New York but everywhere what they can and cannot see,” he said.
NYCLASS will hold a protest in defense of the elephants from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. on February 20 outside the Barclays Center. So far, the group has refrained from making any references to the Holocaust, but there's still time.
