Thaindian News

Washington, Jan 4 (THAINDIAN NEWS) Ringling Bros and the Barnum & Bailey Circus have won a lawsuit in which they were accused of handling their elephants badly. They won the lawsuit against an U.S. animal-rights group accusing the “Greatest Show on Earth” of handling elephants with hooks and chains in violation of the Endangered Species Act.

The court made the case in favor of Ringling’s owner, Vienna, Virginia- based Feld Entertainment Inc. The order was signed by U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan in Washington. The nine-year-old suit by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals culminated in a six-week trial, which ended March 18. Ringling Bros. had been accused of violating the law because handlers had wrongly used bull hooks on elephants and chained them for long periods too which is a clear violation of the law.

The main witness of the case was Tom Rider, who was looking after the Ringling elephants in one of the circus’s traveling units from 1997 to 1999. Sullivan said Rider lied about payments he received from various animal-rights groups beginning in 2000 and that he exaggerated his personal attachment to the animals. “Mr. Rider was repeatedly impeached, and indeed was pulverized on cross-examination,” Sullivan said in the ruling. “The court finds that Mr. Rider is essentially a paid plaintiff and fact witness who is not credible.”

“We’ve known for years that backstage beatings occur,” Daphna Nachminovitch, vice president for cruelty investigations for PETA, said, “but what will strike the audience is that these elephants can’t do anything right as far as these workers go.”