Minneapolis City Council considers future of circus animals (A Ban On Circuses?)

Minneapolis StarTribune (aka The Red Star) ^ | 9/13/07 | Terry Collins - Staff Reporter

[MplsSteve]

The animal rights advocates came with a video of a stampeding circus elephant shot dead in the street. The circus animal supporters, many wearing Shriners' fezzes, argued that nobody wants to see a circus without lions, tigers and elephants.

On Wednesday, City Hall became the Big Top for a divisive, standing-room-only hearing on whether Minneapolis will ban circus shows featuring wild animals.

After two hours of tense debate that featured nationally recognized animal experts, the council's public safety and regulatory services committee moved the issue forward without a recommendation. The full council will vote on the matter next Friday.

If it adopts the ordinance, Minneapolis would join more than two dozen American cities including Stamford, Conn.; Boulder, Colo., and Albuquerque, N.M., that have banished circus animals.

"It is cruel and inhumane to cage them up and force them to do unnatural tricks under the threat of pain and punishment," said Council Member Ralph Remington, who thinks there are seven votes needed to pass the measure. "Wild animals in circuses have become as antiquated as circus sideshows.

[TypeZoNegative]

I would say we could simply go to the old Met Center to watch the circus animals so we could avoid the MinneaCCCPoplis ordinances, but the old Met Center is now an Ikea.

[pepsionice]

I agree...zoo’s ought to be eliminated as a wasteful amount of money and effort. Why force a polar bear to survive in Atlanta in the summer? Why force Elephants to survive in New York City in the winter? They should all be shut down and the property handed over for homeless shelters.

[Pusterfuss]

I got ‘behind the scenes’ at a circus in Rochester a couple of years ago. I saw quite the contrary to abuse.