Bill de Blasio May Ban Barnum & Bailey Circus from New York

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At least the old lefties went in for bread and circuses. The new lefties like William Wilhelm Jr. aka Bill de Blasio are out to ban the circuses too. Maybe they hate the competition from professional trained clowns.

The engine behind the ban is the deeply controversial animal rights group NYCLASS that helped bankroll Bill de Blasio’s win. With so many top politicians in its pocket, it’s moving on from attacking horses to attacking elephants.

The circus is coming to town — and some advocates want it to be for the last time.

NYCLASS, the animal rights group that’s been the key player in pushing for a ban on Central Park horse carriages, says it also wants the city to bar the use of animals in circuses — one item on an expanded agenda it plans to pursue this year.

“Animals in the circus are horribly abused. Animals in nature don’t naturally wear tutus and stand on their hind legs,” said Allie Feldman, the group’s executive director.

Well you learn something new every day. But wait, here’s an elephant doing just that in nature.

Elephant Thinks Its A Giraffe

Animal rights activists like Allie Feldman are ignorant swine when it comes to knowing anything about the animals they want to save kill for their own good. But that’s unnecessarily insulting to swine who don’t deserve being compared to Allie Feldman.

Feldman however is correct about tutus. Animals in nature don’t wear them. Animals in nature however also eat obnoxious animal rights activists so let’s call it even.

If animals were banned, the circus would cancel all city appearances, said Stephen Payne, vice president of Feld Entertainment, Ringling’s parent company.

“This is another attempt by an organization with a radical animal rights political agenda to tell people not just in New York but everywhere what they can and cannot see,” he said.

Telling people what they can and can’t do is the whole reason that the totalitarian left exists.

Councilwoman Rosie Mendez (D-Manhattan) has introduced bills to ban the use of “wild or exotic” animals in circuses in the last two sessions of the Council, but they have never come to a vote.

Mayor de Blasio and City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito both signed on to previous versions of the bill. A Mark-Viverito spokesman said she would have to review any new legislation and a de Blasio rep did not respond to a request for comment.

It’s NYCLASS’ move. Let’s see how much they’re willing to bribe the politicians to banish elephants and tigers from the Big Apple. Can a bid to close the Bronx Zoo be far behind?

  • Nick

    What next? Ban the The World Famous Lipizzaner Stallion show?
    http://www.lipizzaner.com/

    From there we could ban dog shows,rodeos, zoos and pet ownership.

    It is precisely where this is headed.

  • wileyvet

    NY is already setting up its own 3 ring Socialist Circus, and Leftist Freak Show. Come one, come all. Step right up folks and see the greatest show on earth with your ringmaster Bill de Blasio. Watch in amazement as he makes the middle class disappear, criminals reappear, and prosperity vanish for everyone. You won’t believe your eyes as he transfers wealth, and juggles the books. Hurry, Hurry, Hurry. There is something for everyone under Bill’s Big Top, except an egress.

  • unionville

    Let me start by saying I don’t believe in banning animals in the circus. But I love elephants. I support the Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald Tennessee. Not all circuses treat their wild animals well. Many of the smaller circuses don’t have the know how. I hope someday the circus will stop using wild animals of their own volition.

    • A Z

      I think the animals are safer performing.

      Eurasians hunted horses, then they ranched horses for food, then they learned how to ride them.

      In North America it appears as though they were only hunted for food. they became extinct 10,000 to 7, 600 years ago.

      We can make some refuges but are those enough? Between natural calamities and a large human population, it might not be.

      I do not think m,any people will give a damn, if the only people who see them are the 1% on safaris.

    • A Z

      I do like the ideal of not forcing change, but getting people to do it though their own volition. Persuasion takes longer at times, but it is longer lasting and is more persistent.

  • Andy_Lewis

    He just wants to run the only circus in town.

  • UCSPanther

    Deblasio is creating the rope to hang himself career wise with.

    Enjoy your decline New York. We’ll enjoy the Schandenfreude…

    • BS77

      How long before the thoughtless voters of NYC get “buyer’s remorse” and decide to recall this idiot?

  • Laura Rose Sorrentino

    Exotic Animals in the circus is a cruel and inhumane way of “entertainment”. Many people are completely unaware and uneducated about this very serious issue. Animals like elephants and tigers spend their whole lives sitting in moving crates around the country (many times 20+ hours at a time without a place to even go to the bathroom). When these animals are not traveling, they are being trained using bull-hooks, whips and many other forms of abuse to get them to perform these stunts. Yes, an elephant may stand up in nature but that does not mean they enjoy dancing around with broken feet and chains wrapped around their heads. And the only reason these animals perform during shows is because their “trainers” stand close by with bull-hooks so the animals can feel threatened. In addition to this, these animals are WILD, they do not belong in a circus where they can seriously hurt or kill people. They’re unpredictable animals and to think you can control them safely is plain ignorant. Anyone who would really like to know the truth behind circuses, I encourage you to do some research and watch this video. (Taken by a former circus trainer). Mayor de Blasio is 100% right in trying to ban them.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8Y9gBaPZXE

    • Alexis Kaiser

      I find it funny, the same rhetoric, the same youtube video references, not an original thought or idea from any of these so called Animal Rights people. They parrot what they are told to. They blindly follow the dogma of animal rights groups. I worked on a certain circus and we invited these people to come and spend a day or so in the backyard, they refused, 100% of them. These people are cultists doing what they do best, creating sheeple like this Mayor and these council people. I mean seriously, do some 24/7 on a circus and wake up.

  • blert

    Domesticated dogs (ex-wolves) live twice as long as wolves in the wild.
    Domesticated horses live twice as long as horses in the wild.
    On and on it goes.
    Domesticated elephants live twice as long as elephants in the wild.

    The PETA crowd is railing against domestication… so that these critters can live a brutal, harsh, feral, existence in nature. This way, they don’t have to witness the stresses that nature places upon the wolf-eat-dog animal kingdom.

    Instead, they assume that all is Petter Pan, — that klicking ones heels will make all suffering go away.

    The threats from trainers are as nothing compared to being eaten alive, starving and ravenous thirst.

    The termination of carriage riding in NYC really means that the horses have to be put down… they eat way too much for riding. They were originally bred as war horses — for knights. So they’ve gone from a Disneyland existence to the slaughterhouse. Classic Progressivism.

    • Laura Rose Sorrentino

      That is actually completely false. Elephants statistically live much shorter lives in captivity. As all animals are different, it is not right to assume that elephants live longer. And regardless, being abused your whole life is worse than dying naturally in nature, that’s how life works.
      http://www.lcanimal.org/index.php/campaigns/elephants/wild-vs-captive

      • Alexis Kaiser

        No, I’ll come back with reference, but statistically proven, elephants under human care have an average life span much longer than those in the wild. Life works, you mean life is cruel? Yes, for elephants in the wild on the verge of joining the list of endangered species, being slaughtered by poachers, killed by predators, but, mostly, humans are destroying their environment. I’ve been in circus 30 years and I would much rather be under human care than out there fending for myself, if I were an elephant.
        Funny, I’m a democrat, but living in New York, well, I’d switch my party alliance in a hurry. Who is this diBlasio guy?

        • Steve O

          Perhaps this will settle the disagreement. It appears that elephants did live longer in the wild than in captivity by nearly 40 more years. This study tracked animals from 1960- 2005. However, it also points out that younger elephants in the wild are also becoming targets for poaching. After all, many other reports since 2005 suggest that elephants are near extinction due to poaching and not life in captivity.

          http://www.allaboutwildlife.com/how-long-do-elephants-live

    • BS77

      Most of the zoo and circus animals are treated well and fed well…they do much better than their counterparts in Africa. Last year NGeographic reported over 25,000 elephants were slaughtered for ivory and meat by poachers. Most of the zoo animals I have seen seem content and probably enjoy security and safety unknown in the wilds. The Central Park Horses are some of the best treated animals on earth…they are not being “exploited” or harmed….they are work horses and probably enjoy their work in their own way. The leftists, so called “progressives” (gosh, I dislike that term), the radicals, the Occupy morons….these people are basically lunatics without a clue as to what they want or what life would be like if their agenda became reality…it would be a return to the Dark Ages.

  • Gary Payne

    I have never observed an animal to be abused at a circus. Quite the opposite, as a fan of the circus I am frequently around, both backstage and in the seats. If these animals were abused, I’d see it. Circus animals are loved and well cared for. To attend a circus, or not, should be a decision of the people. We the people are sick and tired of being dictated to by an elite few. What’s next? A ban on birthday cake? (All that sugar) From large cokes to happy meals to the circus…this man/mayor is a dictator courting special interest groups.

  • James Cole

    I do not live in New York City and can’t seem to understand the mentality of all this wanting to ban circus animals? I am good friends with many circus animal trainers, and they are 24/7 dedicated to the welfare of their animals. NYCLASS…whatever they are, needs to go out and rescue stray cats and dogs and spend money on spay & neuter programs for low income pet owners! Then they would be doing something for animals. Please don’t make this a “left vs right” political issue, I’m a Democrat, but sure wouldn’t support the NY Mayor!

  • Chuck Thorson

    The animal rights radicals are at it again with their same old tired You Tube video crap !! Their constant rant on It’s “Our Way or The Highway” doesn’t hold water as was seen yesterday with a Sold Out crowd for Ringling Bros.& Barnum & Baily Circus !! New York has a lot more problems than worrying about performing animals that have the finest care possilbe !!

  • fatebekind

    City Hall is just protecting it’s union shop. Ringling Bros. clowns would provide unfair competition to Mayor DeBlah Blah and the clowns that make up the City Council.

  • Steve Hyde

    I have been around circuses since I saw my first one in 1958. I have performed magic and illusions on some shows over the years. I have never, ever seen any animal mistreated. Never. Why would you abuse the stars of the show. Mistreating these wonderful creatures, would be like purchasing a $100.000 sports car, painting a number on it, and then enter it in a demolition derby at the local fair !!!. These beautiful animals are like members of the family. Peta and other animal rights activists have no knowledge of animals and how they can co-insist with us humans. They are driven by passion reinforced by misinformation. Hopefully, they can forget about destroying a 200 year old family tradition, and focus their attention on little things like HOMELESSNESS, DRUG TRAFFIC IN SCHOOLS, BULLYING, HUMAN TRAFFICKING, AND A MILLION OTHER THINGS DESTROYING OR SOCIETY. One can only HOPE.

  • P W

    The following photos were taken by a former Ringling employee. BTW, there are plenty of conservatives who oppose this cruelty: http://www.ringlingbeatsanimals.com/bound-babies.asp