ALERT: ELEPHANT RIDES BEING PROPOSED FOR 2005 CALIFORNIA STATE FAIR IN SACRAMENTO

[Guest guest]

Monday, November 22, 2004

 

YOUR CALLS AND LETTERS ARE NEEDED ASAP. PLEASE ACT NOW BEFORE ANY

PENDING CONTRACT IS SIGNED.

 

The San Mateo County Board of Supervisors last year wisely voted to ban

elephant rides from the annual Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival, for

reasons of animal welfare and public safety.

 

Such progressive and compassionate views have yet to reach Sacramento,

apparently. California State Fair officials are currently negotiating

to have elephant rides at the 2005 State Fair. It's a bad idea for all

concerned, and Fair officials and state legislators need to hear from

us. Virginia Handley (The Fund for Animals), Curt Ransom (Humane

Society of the U.S.), and I have met with the Fair administration, and

have been unable to persuade them thus far to drop this ill-advised

idea. We need your help to convince them otherwise.

 

One can only imagine the death and destruction should a five-ton

elephant run amok through a crowd of 50,000 people with terrified

children aboard. It wouldn't take much to set the disaster in motion:

a car backfiring, a firecracker, a minor earthquake, etc......Remember

Tyke, who was gunned down on the city streets of Honolulu a few years ago?

 

When not giving rides, these Asian elephants (an endangered species) are

kept in chains. The travel from Southern California is highly stressful

on the animals, and potentially dangerous. Elephant rides serve only to

reinforce the idea that animals are here merely for our entertainment,

and the animals' welfare is secondary. There's also a public health

risk: elephants can carry and transmit tuberculosis to humans.

 

Surely we can come up with a more humane and life-affirming

entertainment. Encourage the Fair management to adopt a written policy

banning ALL exotic and/or wild animal acts and exhibits.

 

WHAT YOU CAN DO

 

Please contact: Norbert Bartosik, General Manager & CEO

Mike Bradley, Chief, Bureau of Exhibits

CALIFORNIA STATE FAIR

1600 Exposition Blvd.

Sacramento, CA 95815

tel. 916/263-3000

fax 916/263-7903

e-mail - genmgr

 

Letters to state legislators would be helpful, too. All may be written

c/o The State Capitol, Sacramento, CA 95814. (NOTE: Senator Deborah

Ortiz and Assemblyman Darrell Steinberg, both of Sacramento, are

ex-officio members of the Fair Board of Directors.)

 

Letters to the Editors of local newspapers would also be helpful.

 

Please send (blind) copies of any letters you write to ACTION FOR ANIMALS.

 

And please forward this alert to anyone you know who might help.

 

Thank you.

 

Sincerely,

 

Eric Mills, coordinator

ACTION FOR ANIMALS

P.O. Box 20184

Oakland, Ca 94620

tel. 510/652-5603