Activist badgers circus on treatment of animals

Friday, June 26, 1998 | 11:42 a.m.

Pat Derby does what many children of an earlier era dreamed about doing -- following the circus.

But when the former film industry animal trainer routinely appears at stops along the circus route and watches the lions and tigers and elephants -- especially the elephants -- herded off the trains and out of the trucks, her emotion is not one of excitement, but anger.

"Circus animals behave like people in mental institutions, exhibiting repetitive behavior such as rocking back-and-forth when they are chained, or pacing when caged," said Derby, who spent many years in Los Angeles training animals before forming the 50,000-member animal-protection organization called the Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) in 1985.

Today, Derby stands outside arriving trucks and trains armed with a video camera to record how the disembarking animals are being treated.

Earlier this week, she was in Las Vegas to greet the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus, which began a series of eight performances at the Thomas & Mack Center that will end Sunday.

"We got some valuable footage of baby elephants being isolated," Derby said.

She explains that elephants are highly socialized animals that live in a "community of love -- a baby elephant is born into a world of love and caring and protection."

Circus life, she said, tears apart the baby elephant's natural world and creates unnatural behavior in the adult that sometimes includes going mad and killing a trainer for no apparent reason.

Since childhood, Derby has had an inexplicable affinity for elephants -- they were an important part of a book she wrote in 1976 called "The Lady and Her Tiger."

Ringling Bros. and Derby have been adversaries for so long that each, in a sense, are as trained in their performances as the circus animals that are at the center of their dispute.

Derby and the circus spokesperson know in general, and often times specifically, what each other will say and the protests and responses to the protests almost become a matter of trading press releases.

Even though the message may seem repetitive, Derby said it can't be shouted often enough. And, she added, the public is beginning to listen to the many complaints she has aired against the treatment of all circus animals across the world.

"These (elephant) babies are being brutalized and could become killers some day," Derby said. "And one of the worst parts of this entire thing is the hypocrisy of the circus' public relation types. Their PR misleads the public. The circus is teaching children disrespect for animals, and disrespect for life."

She said the circus only wants performing robots -- they don't care about the animal.

Joan Galvin, vice president of government relations at the Ringling Bros. corporate offices in Virginia, has heard most, if not all, of Derby's criticism in the past and has ready answers to them.

"It would not make sense to do anything but treat (the animals) with the utmost of care," she said, asserting that animals are the most important and popular elements of the circus. "It is our patrons who are our final judges (of whether the animals are being mistreated)."

Galvin said Ringling places top priority on their animals.

She said the circus entertains and educates the public with their animals, and points out that the company has a state-of-the-art breeding ground for elephants in Florida.

Called the "Center for Elephant Conservation," she said the facility is dedicated solely to the breeding and study of Asian elephants and that it has gained worldwide recognition for its success in studying and preserving the species.

Derby said that those are more public relations statements.

"They're running a puppy mill for elephants," she said.

Galvin also noted that Ringling Bros. asked Congress last year to introduce the Asian Elephant Conservation Act, which was passed and now is in effect. The Act helps support and protect Asian elephants in Southeast Asia, she said.

"We are making tremendous contributions to preservation of the species in addition to educating and entertaining," Galvin said.

Derby said she is not radical, that she recognizes there will be animals in zoos and that she wouldn't even mind animals in circuses if they were treated as well as public relations people say they are, and if the circuses didn't travel.

Travel, she said, is what hurts the elephants and other animals the most.

But, Galvin countered, the animals travel in special cars, appropriate stops are made for care and feeding and the company exceeds federal standards in animal care.

"In fact, circus elephants live far longer in captivity than their jungle counterparts," Galvin noted.

Derby said America has been duped by circus PR for years.

"Don't buy into the circus publicity of 125 years of tradition," she said. "Slavery was a tradition. Suppression of women was a tradition.

"As we move into the 21st century, we may not want to keep all the old traditions, such as slavery."