PETITION TO BAN CIRCUSES AND TRAVELING ACTS IN OUR COMMUNITY ============================================================ Whereas animals used in the circus and other traveling acts travel thousands of miles each year without water, in railroad cars or trucks neither air-conditioned in summer nor heated in winter; Whereas animals used in the circus and other traveling acts are forced to stand in their own waste, chained in place for up to 100 hours while being transported from one performance to another, and do not receive the proper care, nutrition, and environmental enrichment required for their well-being; Whereas animals used in the circus and other traveling acts are highly intelligent, evolved and emotional individual beings and, as such, suffer terribly while being used for human “entertainment"; their basic need for live vegetation or prey, family relationships, and freedom of movement being denied; Whereas training for animals used in the circus and other traveling acts is almost always based on fear and intimidation; it is not uncommon for elephants to be tied down and beaten for days at a time with clubs, shocked with electric prods, stabbed with sharp hooks and whipped. Exotic cats and bears are whipped, choked, and beaten; their noses broken and paws burned with cigarette lighters to get them to balance on their hind legs, jump through fiery hoops and perform other unnatural acts; Whereas animals used in the circus and other traveling acts have struck back out of understandable despair, frustration and rage. causing over 100 human deaths and mutilations since 1990; WE, THE UNDERSIGNED RESIDENTS OF (fill in the name of your community), DO NOT FIND CIRCUSES AND TRAVELING ACTS USING ANIMALS, WHOLESOME ENTERTAINMENT AND URGE OUR (commissioners, city council, or other), IN THE INTEREST OF PUBLIC SAFETY, MORE EFFICIENT USE OF TAXPAYERS' MONEY, AND THE HUMANE TREATMENT OF ANIMALS, TO PASS A BAN OF CIRCUSES AND TRAVELING ANIMAL ACTS IN OUR COMMUNITY. PRINT NAME SIGNATURE ADDRESS(include zip) PHONE(optional) _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________

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