Vegan Outreach protest at Cole Bros circus draws harassment

On the 26th of April, activists from Vegan Outreach showed up at the Cole Brothers Circus showing at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds.

Here is the report posted by a participant:

Tonight, Saturday, April 26th, 3 activists arrived at the entrance of the Cole Brothers Circus on the Montgomery County Fair Grounds. If you have ever researched the details of the industry standard practices for breaking these animals you have probably seen the video of Cole Brothers' head trainer, Tim Frisco teaching trainers, "Don't touch 'em, hurt 'em! Make 'em scream!" "If you're scared to hurt 'em, don't come in the barn." "When I say rip his fucking head off, rip his fucking foot off, it's very important that you do it" "When he starts squirming too fucking much, both fucking hands --BOOM-- right under that chin!" Then he swings the billhook like a baseball bat to illustrate. Then he says, "Then when he fucks around too much you fucking sink that hook and give it everything you've got' and then "....when you hear that screamin', then you know you got their attention!" and then "Right here in the barn; can't do it on the road" "I'm not going to touch her in front of a thousand people. She's gonna do what I want and that's just the way it is" Then the video shows the trainers running at the elephants with electric prods. They want the animals to fear them so they will never challenge the humans. They continue shocking the elephants just to make sure the elephants know that they are victims and there is no hope of that changing.

(editor's note:)There is a Youtube video of this trainer, but nobody can play if if they do not have a Youtube/Google account as someone at Google flagged for "age verification."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryDfr3jid_4&oref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtu...

They can't do it on the road because they don't want to get caught. If they get caught they cannot continue the lie they tell humans to get them to come and spend money at the circus. They do it when you can't see. They beat the animals into submission. They break their will. They take everything from them. Every animal used by the entertainment industry is an individual who has an inherent right to his or her freedom, but it is taken from them for the money of everyone who goes there for 2 hours of entertainment. No one needs entertainment, but you can get plenty of entertainment without hurting anyone. Cirque du Soleil has not used animals and Harlem Globetrotters recently came through on tour. Good entertainment does not harm anyone.

We went to the Cole Brother's tent tonight to explain that to the humans attending. Many of these humans just need someone to explain it to them. We are all raised in a speciesist society that tells us using other animals is okay. It is not. We need to unlearn specisism. Tonight activists explained that to the humans who could hear us.

So, Cole Brothers turned up music to prevent us being heard. It did not work. Many humans stood there watching us. Many came over to us to ask for a leaflet. We also offered leaflets to everyone who walked by, telling them, "The animals have a right to their freedom; it is taken from them for your money". So, Cole Brothers had men we later were told were from the Agriculture Foundation (still trying to confirm), which we were told own the fair grounds, come riding over on a golf cart and tried to interfere with us. I moved to prevent them from blocking my bullhorn. They kept trying to stop me, but I kept ignoring them while talking through the bullhorn about the animal abuse. The other activists kept leafleting and standing their ground, too. Several men were trying to interfere with us, but we kept evading them.

We were able to speak on behalf of the victims for about an hour before the cops were on scene. Two cops arrived and politely told us we had to leave because it was private property (we have not confirmed that yet). I turned back to the crowd and used my bullhorn to tell them that we were being forced to leave because it is private property and the circus wants to keep them from knowing the truth. I asked them to please google search "circus cruelty" and do the research themselves because they have a responsibility to know what their money is paying for and to see what the circus is hiding from them.

We can stop this atrocity. Several countries have made it illegal to use wild animals in traveling acts. Congressman Jim Moran has a bill that he kept reintroducing. It will happen in our lifetime. Be on the right side of history. Boycott all entertainment that uses animals.