6A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, MAY 26, 2017
Circus: Taken to court several times
Continued from Page 1A
For some, however, the
circus becomes more con-
troversial when animals are
brought into the one-ring
show. The Culpepper & Mer-
riweather Circus will feature
Francis, a black-maned Afri-
can lion, golden tabby tigers
Solomon and Delilah, and
draft horses, dogs and ponies
along with about two dozen
circus performers.
“It’s fun, but equally dis-
turbing,” Nansen Malin, of
Seaview, said. Bringing a cir-
cus here “is tone deaf to what
the community’s values are.”
Everybody likes a good
time, she said. However, cir-
cuses, particularly small ones
such as Culpepper & Mer-
riweather, have a troubling
track record.
For the record
The U.S. Department of
Agriculture has cited Cul-
pepper & Merriweather doz-
ens of times since 1991. The
circus has a long history of
neglecting to provide its ani-
mals with adequate veterinary
care, food, space and shel-
ter, according to the USDA
reports.
Federal inspectors found
Culpepper & Merriweather
had put people at risk by
keeping large, dangerous ani-
mals in cages that lacked the
strength to stop them from
getting out and harming the
audience.
The circus has also been
taken to court on several occa-
sions. In 2011, a judge sus-
pended Culpepper & Mer-
riweather’s license for six
months after she found the
circus “willfully failed” to
develop a plan for veterinary
care, didn’t provide proper
care for a tiger cub and had a
“shockingly cavalier attitude”
toward the health and safety
of its animals.
The circus has had all
kinds of adventures with ani-
mal escapes, too. Over the
years, it has had elephants on
the loose in small-town Kan-
sas, camels sneaking out of
their enclosures to graze and
farm animals joining a pair
of elephants for a jaunt in
California.
Disappearing trick
Debbie Metzler, a cap-
tive wildlife specialist from
Gig Harbor, said making sure
everyone has access to pub-
lic records, such as USDA
inspection reports and cita-
tions, gives people the power
to make an informed vote
with their dollars. Until Feb-
ruary, those records were eas-
ily available online.
“They just up and took
them down one day,” Met-
zler said. “The public should
be able to look up a record.
That can help them make an
informed decision.”
It’s particularly import-
ant to be mindful about busi-
nesses and nonprofi ts that are
responsible for animals, she
said.
Susie Goldsmith, of Long
Beach, did exactly that. She
had plenty of questions when
someone from the circus
called her house looking for
a donation. As much as she
would have liked to support
the show’s local sponsor, the
Long Beach Merchants Asso-
ciation, she said, she can’t
give money to a circus that
uses animals in its shows. She
sees keeping animals captive,
dragging them from town to
town and using whips to force
them to perform on demand as
cruel.
ing, with early morning set up,
caring for animals, preparing
to pull off acts with precision,
two 90-minute performances
in the evening, tear down and
travel.
More often than not,
they’re in a new town every
day until the show stops for
the fi nal show in Hugo, Okla-
homa, the storied “Circus City
USA.”
“This type of traveling cir-
cus is an anachronism,” Gold-
smith said. “Take a hint from
Ringling Brothers. It’s an out-
dated form of entertainment.”
After a 146-year run, the
world’s most historic circus,
Ringling Brothers and Bar-
num & Bailey went dark for
good after its fi nal show Sun-
day. Even “the greatest show
on earth” couldn’t adequately
feed the interests of tech-hun-
gry children or fend off attacks
from animal-rights activists.
Captivating people
Goldsmith, however, is no
circus-hater. She’s a fan of
acrobats and Cirque du Soleil-
style shows.
“These ‘circuses’ focus on
humans who have a choice
whether or not to be in a cir-
cus,” she said. “But hav-
ing wild caged animals and
even using dogs they refer
to as their ‘pets’ should be
prohibited.”
Green, the spokeswoman,
said circus performers who
handle animals are respon-
sible for caring for their
creatures .
“When everyone takes
care of their own, they’re
treated like family members,”
she said.
Green said people get the
Next year
The Long Beach Mer-
chants Association was asked
to take on promotion of the
circus this year. In exchange,
the nonprofi t gets to keep
about a quarter of proceeds
from advance ticket sales,
president Karl Hintz said. In
the past, the local Lions Club
has sponsored the show as a
way of raising money for its
service work.
Hintz said he understands
concerns about how circus
animals are treated, but they
didn’t come up until after the
merchants had sold roughly
300 tickets.
“What could we do?” he
said. “Our decision was to
plow on and heavily con-
sider whether we do it again.
Maybe that’s good enough
reason not to do it next year.”
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Tight schedule
Entertainers with Culpep-
per & Merriweather travel on
a tight schedule from March
to October, caged animals in
tow. Days on tour are gruel-
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wrong idea about circus per-
formers — they love animals,
too. She’s seen an unfortu-
nate situation with an animal
get twisted into a story about
her colleagues being ani-
mal-abusers too many times.
She sees how they care for
and connect with the animals.
Her boss, circus manager
Trey Key, who tames lions
and tigers for the show, kisses
Francis, the lion, on the face
every morning.
Green said Culpepper &
Merriweather has been trying
to show everyone how much
they care for their animals
and how well they’re treated
by letting people see what
goes on behind the curtain.
The traveling troupe is giving
a free talk and tour when the
tent is raised around 9:30 a.m.
on Tuesday.
Associated Press
Trump travel ban showdown
headed for Supreme Court
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump’s administration is
pledging a Supreme Court showdown over his travel ban after
a federal appeals ruled that the ban “drips with religious intoler-
ance, animus and discrimination.”
Citing the president’s duty to protect the country from ter-
rorism, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Thursday that the
Justice Department will ask the high court to review the case,
although he offered no timetable.
The Supreme Court is almost certain to step into the case
over the presidential executive order issued by Trump that
seeks to temporarily cut off visas for people from Iran, Libya,
Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. The justices almost always
have the fi nal say when a lower court strikes down a federal law
or presidential action.
The case pits the president’s signifi cant authority over immi-
gration against what the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Cir-
cuit said was a policy that purported to be about national secu-
rity but was intended to target Muslims.
Parties generally have 90 days to appeal to the Supreme
Court, but if the administration waits until late August to ask the
court to step in, the justices probably would not vote on whether
to hear the case until October and arguments probably wouldn’t
take place until February 2018 at the earliest. That would be
more than a year after Trump rolled out the fi rst travel ban.
Was Montana’s wild House race
a Trump test? Not so much
BOZEMAN, Mont. — Greg Gianforte spent the day of his
greatest political victory out of sight, avoiding questions about
the assault charge fi led against him on the eve of a congres-
sional race that some cast as a referendum on Donald Trump’s
presidency.
In the end, though, the Republican emerged Thursday night
as Montana’s new congressman, a comfortable win that may
temper Democrats’ hopes for a massive anti-Trump wave to
sweep them back into power in Washington in 2018.
Yet Gianforte’s single-digit win paled to Trump’s 20-point
romp in Montana in November, a sign that Republicans will
have to work hard to defend some of their most secure seats to
maintain control of Congress.
The race ultimately turned on the weaknesses of both Gian-
forte and his opponent, folk singer and Democrat Rob Quist,
making it tough to use as a barometer for the nation’s politi-
cal mood.
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