www.easyvegan.info/2008/05/18/kinship-circle-dear-tnt-tel...
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Kinship Circle - kinshipcircle [at] accessus.net
Date: Sat, May 17, 2008 at 4:58 PM
Subject: Dear TNT, Tell The Truth About Ringling Bros. Circus
KINSHIP CIRCLE PRIMARY - PERMISSION TO CROSS-POST AS WRITTEN
5/17/08: TNT, Tell The Truth About Ringling Bros. Circus
EMAIL kinshipcircle [at] accessus.net FOR WORD DOC OF A FORMATTED LETTER.
Easily modify letter and copy/paste it into an email or print out to fax or mail.
LEFT: A Ringling performance.
RIGHT: Animal Protection Institute photo, January 2005 in Jacksonville, Florida, shows Ringling elephants chained immediately after exiting a transport train (AP Photo/API, Bradley Stookey).
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FULL CONTACT INFORMATION. Sample letter follows.
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Steve Koonin, President, Turner Entertainment Networks
1050 Techwood Dr.; Atlanta, GA 30318
ph: 404-827-3933; fax: 404-575-5294
email (his assistant): anne.smith [at] turner.com
Mark Wolper, President, The Wolper Organization
4000 Warner Blvd., Bldg. 14, Room 200
Burbank, CA 91522-0001
ph: 818-954-1421; fax: 818-954-1593
email (his assistant): kathleen.doise [at] wbtvprod.com
Al Hassas, Executive Producer, Collective Media
9100 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 700; West Beverly Hills, CA 90212
ph: 310-888-1522; fax: 310-888-1555
email: al [at] thecollective-la.com
*Kinship Circle cannot guarantee validity of email addresses. During campaigns, recipients may change or disable their email addresses. Emails from government, corporate, or institute websites may be incorrect.
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SAMPLE LETTER -- This letter is prepared to inform you about the issue.
Try to shorten and personalize your letter before sending.
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Dear Mr. Koonin, Mr. Wolper, and Mr. Hassas:
Reality shows have saturated airwaves and lost their authenticity. To better showcase Turner Network Television's new reality program starring Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, please include affidavits about handlers who batter elephants bloody and chain them inside train cars for days.
You may wish to consult Tom Rider, a former Ringling "barn man" who testified before Congress: "Elephants live in confinement and are beaten all the time when they don't perform properly." In sworn deposition, Rider said elephants are chained up to 23 hours daily. He described the particularly brutal beatings of Benjamin, a baby elephant who died.
Perhaps past employee Archele Hundley can lend her eyewitness accounts of an elephant soaked in blood after a half-hour beating, a horse thrashed with a metal-tip lead for 10 minutes, or a miniature horse knocked senseless from a trainer's closed-fist punch. Ms. Hundley says: "The public has no idea Ringling's handlers are taught to keep animals afraid. I saw elephants, horses, and camels punched, beaten, and whipped by circus staff members."
To give the show even more realism, I suggest producers canvass public records. For example, in one of numerous complaints filed with the USDA, [USDA# 52-C-0137 (past # 58-C-0106), 8607 Westwood Center Dr., Vienna, VA 22182] Ringling Bros. fails to meet federal Animal Welfare Act requirements.
USDA inspection reports routinely cite the circus for:
* Trauma, physical harm and behavioral stress to animals;
* Failure to possess records of veterinary care;
* Dispensing expired medication;
* Insufficient exercise, space and shade for animals;
* Improper feeding, unsanitary food and dirty storage trucks.
Recently, a federal judge ruled an animal cruelty case against Ringling Bros., and its parent company Feld Entertainment, could proceed. Documents uncovered during a lawsuit filed under the Endangered Species Act reveal circus workers strike, chain and wound endangered Asian elephants. The circus is accused of forcibly removing pre-weaned elephants from mothers and beating them into submission.
Denny's, Lukoil, General Mills, Burger King, Liz Claiborne, MasterCard, Visa, Sears, Roebuck & Co. and other large corporations terminated promos for animal acts such as Ringling Bros., once informed about fear-driven training based in animal abuse.
A single letter cannot detail decades of Ringling animal abuse, neglect and death. However, it is not my job to present veracity in reality programming. I call upon TNT's president and the show's producers to either air a genuine Ringling portrait or abandon the show altogether.
Thank you,
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SOURCE OF INFORMATION / REFERENCE LINKS
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Let TNT Know What You Think of Its Ringling Bros. Reality Show
www.api4animals.org/actionalerts.php?p=1553&more=1&am...
TNT's Ringling Reality Series: Sickest Show On Earth?
www.huffingtonpost.com/duncan-strauss/tnts-ringling-reali...
VIDEO: Ringling Bros. Bullhook Abuse And Lame Elephants 2006
www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDolPQa6JEM
The Sadist Show on Earth?
blog.nj.com/njv_joel_schwartzberg/2008/04/trouble_with_th...
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