| Filing
Complaints
Please file complaints on all circus animals, elephants and zoo elephants you see in person. This is a VITAL step in forcing the USDA to taking more action. Filing complaints to law enforcement agencies and health inspection departments in these localities will help administer and regulate humane law to protect these animals and stop the severe abuse they endure.
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October 1, 2003
The Surgeon General
Office of the Surgeon General
5600 Fishers Lane
Room 18-66
Rockville, MD 20857
Dear Surgeon General Carmona:
This is to you alert of a present and looming public health risk of tuberculosis. Many circus elephants carry tuberculosis which they contracted from filthy conditions and humans. Many elephants have died of this treatable disease. The circuses, being the greedy and inhumane organizations that they are, knowingly and maliciously have put the public including children at risk by allowing the public to ride and pet TB infected elephants.
On September 23, 2003, the trial of RINGLING BROTHERS and BARNUM BAILEY started in Washington DC with Judge Emmett Sullivan presiding. The suit, brought on by the ASPCA , THE FUND FOR ANIMALS, and Tom Ryder (ex-Ringling employee) alleges beating, chaining and forced separation of baby elephants from their mothers.
They also allege that the USDA willfully covered up known tuberculosis and kept the public in the dark. The deputy assistant director closed case after case without charging Ringling. He since took a position with Ringling as Vice President of Animal Care.
It also alleges that Ringling covertly was seeking a physician who would destroy the TB test results of it’s employees. They denied many elephants had TB, who actually were infected. And they did not treat a positive elephant they leased from another zoo.
You can see the entire 241 page report at: http://www.fund.org/library/documentViewer.asp?ID=1130&table=documents (see Part X).
Another notoriously cruel elephant rental company, Hawthorn (Mr. John Cuneo – owner) has allowed four endangered Asian elephants to die of tuberculosis. These elephants gave rides to the public until the day they died. See JOYCE’s picture enclosed. LOTA was turned away at the Florida state line by police when they saw how sick she was. OSHA is investigating.
Federal officials have cited a McHenry County animal trainer for failing to protect his employees amid fears that some may have contracted tuberculosis from infected elephants.
In citations issued last week, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration charged John Cuneo's business, Hawthorn Corp., with failing to provide workers with protective clothing, failing to label a barn in which an infected elephant is housed, and failing to provide a sufficient medical monitoring program. Charles Shields, area director for the OSHA office in North Aurora, said the citations were issued after some Hawthorn employees tested positive for TB.
Can you do something to stop the circus elephants from being near humans and giving rides to prevent the spread of this highly contagious disease? I hope this would mean banning elephants from circus and entertainment field. Congress has not initiated a captive elephant bill since 1999.
Enclosed is the Tuberculosis report (Part X) from the lawsuit.
Sincerely,
CC: Secretary Health and Human Services; Center For Disease Control