Ban the circus elephant, says protester

JOHN BISSET/Timaru Herald

PROTESTER: Ingrid Weihmann plans to protest against Jumbo the elephant performing in the Loritz Circus which is visiting Timaru for the next week.

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Ingrid Weihmann is urging people to think twice before going to the circus that she believes causes an elephant to suffer.

The Timaru woman plans to support a Safe (animal welfare group) protest to be held outside the Loritz Circus at Aoraki Polytech at 12.45pm tomorrow.

However, Loritz management say Jumbo was saved from certain death when she joined the circus and was happy and well looked after, with plans in place to retire her when they find the right place for her.

Ms Weihmann wanted to protest after seeing Safe footage which shows Jumbo tethered and rocking side-to-side. "She is exhibiting behaviour that shows she is unhappy. Elephants are herd animals. She must be lonely and miserable not being able to roam.

"SPCA wouldn't allow it into Dunedin city."

Ms Weihmann was not a member of Safe but wanted to support the protest. She differentiated between exotic animals and domesticated animals and only ate meat that was free range. "It's different when they are animals that have been domesticated, which can still exhibit cow-like or sheep-like behaviours. This elephant is completely away from its natural environment."

Safe member and Timaru protest organiser Debbie Crowe said she did not think it was right for an elephant to be caged and this had led her to organise the protest. "She could be in a sanctuary. We need to teach our children it is not right to treat animals this way."

When the circus visited Dunedin early last month, Safe made a complaint to the Agriculture and Forestry Ministry and the SPCA after seeing Jumbo kept in what it said were conditions that were in breach of the circus code of welfare.

According to Safe, Jumbo had been illegally tethered in her trailer, kept in inadequate living conditions without sufficient exercise and kept on the hard surface of a car park.

Loritz Circus was scheduled to perform in Dunedin for three weeks from the first week of April, but the Dunedin City Council council and SPCA had Jumbo removed to Mosgiel as the council had a policy prohibiting exotic animals from performing.

Loritz Circus marketing manger Paul Johnson said Jumbo had performed to 48,000 people in the South Island in the past year, and only 48 people had protested.

"I flew to Christchurch to talk to the people from Safe and asked them to provide some suggestions and they never have.

"I respect their right to protest but they have never come up with what we could do. Maybe I should drop her, Jumbo, off at their doorstep, although that would be cruel.

"We have plans to retire her when we can find the right place. We were talking to a zoo but she was a different breed to the elephant they had so they didn't want her."

Jumbo is 36-years-old, and came to New Zealand 31 years ago. Mr Johnson said she was saved from certain death as she had been thrown into a moat in Honolulu and left to die. Jumbo costs up to $200 a day for food and can eat up to 30 cabbages and consume 45 gallons of water a day. On average she appears six times a week in the circus for about five minutes a day.