The face of suffering.

The camels I swore I would try to help.

SHOCKING CRUELTY TO ELEPHANTS FOR NEW 'ROMANTIC' FILM 'WATER FOR ELEPHANTS'. 

Video just released today by Animal Defenders International shows the elephant, Tai, who appears alongside Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattinson in the new film Water for Elephants, being beaten and electric shocked during training.

Watch The Shocking Video Here

The tragic irony is that despite the trainers and industry’s insistence of the humane treatment of Tai, the fictionalized abuse of “Rosie” on screen is undeniably actually happening off camera to Tai, the biggest star of the show.

ADI is sending copies of the DVD to the film’s stars and makers, asking them to take a public stand against animal cruelty, and insisting the American Humane Association strengthen their guidelines or at the least be honest when endorsing movies where animal actors appear. Right now, the shocking video and truth about animal training brutality is making headlines around the world, and we need your help to expose the truth. Please see the “What you can do” section below how you can help Tai and other animals in the industry.

The fictional drama, Water for Elephants, is set in a depression-era circus, vividly and often accurately depicting a harsh life on the road under the big top where animals and people are forced to live in cramped conditions, and endure violence at every turn. However at the same time, the film suggests cruel animal treatment is isolated to one tyrannical circus owner or happened ‘back in the day.’ Unfortunately violence, chains, bullhooks, and suffering is fact— not fiction for animal performers in contemporary circuses. The abuse of Tai in this ADI behind-the-scenes footage is not an isolated event but rather the industry standard.

The Industry Claims

In the film “Rosie,” played by Tai, is brutally attacked by the circus owner who beats her with a bull hook. But the producers, stars, and trainers have been at pains to stress that Tai was trained with kindness, marshmallows, and positive reinforcement.

Gary Johnson, a founder of Have Trunk Will Travel claimed: “Tai was never hit in any way at all.”
American Humane Association (AHA), observed the animal action during filming and said: “We’re here observing prep on Water for Elephants and so we’re here to make sure that everybody knows that not only the action on set but also the prep is humanely done, all these animals have been treated fairly and humanely throughout the entire course of their training.”

The Brutal Truth

However, the shocking video, filmed at Have Trunk Will Travel in 2005, was posted online today by ADI after the London premier, tells a different story.

• Elephants including Tai are repeatedly given electric shocks with hand held stun guns

• Tai cries out when being shocked into performing a headstand

• Elephants including Tai are beaten about the body and legs with bull hooks

• A baby elephant is hooked in the lip and cries out

• An elephant is pinned with bull hooks whilst her tusks are sawn down, close to the bone

What You Can Do

• Please contact ADI today and find out how you can speak up for Tai and all animals being abused in the entertainment industry.

• Boycott this film and tell your family and friends to take a stand against animal cruelty by only supporting films without animal actors.

• Leaflet moviegoers at a theater near you to educate them about the abuse of Tai and other performing animals.  Click here to order leaflets from our team

• Contact your local theater with a copy of the DVD we can provide you, and politely ask them to make the right choice and stop showing the film.

• Contact ADI for a letter writing pack with sample letters to Water for Elephants actors and movie makers, and sample letters to the editor to help you raise your voice for Tai and the other animals abused for entertainment.

If you live in the UK, please contact info@ad-international.org,

if you live in the U.S. please contact usa@ad-international.org and ask for a Water for Elephants Letter Writing Pack.

• Write a letter to your local paper about Tai’s abuse and educate the public that animal suffering is never romantic and it is never entertainment. (Sample letters available in our letter writing pack.)

• Contact the Director and Producer and politely ask that they make Water for Elephants the last film they will use live animal actors. (Contacts and sample letters available in our letter writing pack.)

• Share the link to the video on your Facebook and other social networking sites, to spread the word to family and friends.

A Message From ADI’s President, Jan Creamer

We were uncomfortable with the message of this film, but the more we saw the repeated assertions that this elephant has been treated with love and affection and never been abused, we realized that we had to get the truth out. The public, the stars and the filmmakers have been duped. This poor elephant was trained to do the very tricks you see in the film by being given electric shocks. This is a unique opportunity to speak up for elephants like Tai, and other animals suffering in the entertainment industry. Our work relies on advocates like you to take a stand. Please contact ADI immediately and find out how you can help.

Cheeter cubs at Chester Zoo - 2011

Cheeter at Chester Zoo

We are all the same under the skin - except this gorilla is made of metal (at Chester Zoo)

Anne's agony: Battered, kicked and stabbed, the desperate plight of Britain's last circus elephant

By Chris Greenwood and Clare Elicott
Last updated at 10:37 PM on 25th March 2011

With each repeated blow, the pitchfork makes a sickening thwack as it slams into Anne the elephant's hide.

She flinches, at one point even appearing to lose her footing under the weight of a particularly savage strike.

The disturbing images come from a secretly shot video which campaigners say lays bare the cruel reality of her life as Britain's last circus elephant.

It shows Anne enduring the abuse at the hands of her so-called carers while shackled in a dingy barn during the circus's winter break.

As well as being repeatedly hit with the pitchfork by one worker employed to feed and look after her, the 58-year-old elephant also appears to be stabbed in the face with the tool's metal prongs during one attack.

A total of 48 strikes, including kicks to her body and head, were recorded as she was left chained to the spot by her legs.

Campaigners claimed shackling Anne with leg irons is particularly cruel because she suffers arthritis and her movements are already badly hampered.

The graphic attacks were recorded over three-and-a-half weeks by a surveillance camera concealed on a farm in Polebrook, Northamptonshire.

Experts working for the pressure group Animal Defenders International (ADI) planted the device because of concerns about Anne's welfare. 

They have repeatedly called for circus owner Bobby Roberts to hand over Anne so she can live out her days in a wildlife sanctuary.

But Mr Roberts, whose Super Circus began its latest tour on Thursday, insists the elephant is 'part of the family' and to separate her from the circus would cause her to 'pine away and die'.

The hidden camera also caught the abuse of other animals in the barn, including a camel, miniature ponies and horses held in stables.

Ponies and horses can be seen jumping backwards as they are kicked and slapped by a worker.

On one occasion a man spits in the face of the camel as he pushes a wheelbarrow of straw in front of it.

Anne is the oldest surviving elephant in Europe and is wheeled out in a headdress to pose for photographs with audience members up to twice a day.

Elephants' life expectancy is around 70 years but the arthritis has taken its toll on her ageing body.

Campaigners have claimed her back right leg locks and weight gain has put even more strain on her frame.

The Asian elephant has been travelling with the Bobby Roberts Super Circus since the 1950s when she was bought by Mr Roberts's parents for around £3,000. 

At the time she was one of many performing elephants but since then most circuses have stopped using animals.

In 2005, the RSPCA and the Government refused to intervene in her case after claims that she was being kept in appalling conditions.

Her plight then was revealed by our sister paper the Mail on Sunday and angry readers sent more than 1,500 letters to Ben Bradshaw, then Labour's Animal Health and Welfare Minister.

However ministry vets reported that Anne was in good health and kept clean and the RSPCA said there was no proof that she was a victim of 'unnecessary suffering'.

The distressing footage from ADI suggests a different story.

It was released as ministers prepare to announce new policies on the treatment of wild animals in circuses.

A consultation found 95 per cent of people said it was unacceptable to use any species of wild animal in a travelling circus.

The Government has since come under pressure to ban the practice but some expect it will unveil a framework for self-regulation instead.

Jan Creamer, who leads ADI, said her organisation has been concerned for Anne's welfare for 'many years'.

She called on police to examine the material with a view to investigating the circus for offences under the Animal Welfare Act.

Ms Creamer said: 'ADI is discussing the potential for legal action with its lawyers and will be in touch with the police.

'Poor Anne has been with the circus for over 50 years since she was a baby, having been caught in the wild and torn from her family.

'Elephants are social and extremely intelligent so this has been a living hell for her. At last we have managed to expose this circus operation for the cruel farce that it is.

'Anne's tragic story symbolises the plight of circus animals and is a shocking indictment of the circus industry at a key time as the Government considers a ban on the use of wild animals in circuses.'

Last night, confronted with the evidence, Bobby Roberts said he would fire the Romanian groom paid £8,000 a year to care for Anne.

'I'm so disgusted and I can't believe this has happened under my nose,' he said.

'We trusted him and we'd check on her every hour or so, but I can't be there 24 hours a day.'

Asked whether he would consider handing over Anne, he said: 'We have talked about sending her to a sanctuary, but the only ones are in America and the journey would kill her.

'If the circumstances were right, I would part from her. But she'd pine, like I would.' 

Mr Roberts's wife Moira said: 'It would break his heart to be parted from her.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1370050/Anne-elephants-agony-Battered-kicked-stabbed-desperate-plight-Britains-circus-elephant.html#ixzz1HiEDkuMx

Subject: Spain's sickening 'blood fiestas' make bullfights seem tame.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1313480/Spains-blood-fiestas-make-bullfights-tame-youre-paying-them.html
Daily Mail. 20 September 2010.
Spain's sickening 'blood fiestas' make bullfights seem tame - but the most shocking thing about them is YOU'RE paying for them.
By Danny Penman In Tordesillas

Marcos held aloft the bloodsoaked bull’s ears and bowed deeply to the crowd. Moments earlier he’d sliced them off the young bull, which now lay on one side, blood pooling beneath him.  But the poor creature wasn’t quite finished yet. In a pitiful act of defiance, he mustered just enough energy to raise his
head a few inches off the ground and tried to stare down his attackers.  Marcos responded by unsheathing a vicious looking knife and stabbing him in the back of the neck for a second time. The
bull’s head flopped back into the dust — he was finished and Marcos, the amateur matador, yelled in triumph.  As the official killer of the bull, he had won the right to parade the animal’s coveted ears, tail and testicles around town on a ceremonial spear. He had also been granted permission to eat the bull’s testicles - widely regarded in Spain as the choicest of all cuts of meat and a rare honour indeed. In the eyes of many, Marcos Rodríguez San José was truly king for the day. Casual brutality towards animals is,
of course, well known in Spanish bullrings, but the sights I witnessed last Tuesday, during the annual Toro de la Vega ‘blood fiesta’ in Tordesillas, were as sickening as they were brutal.
What is more, such blood fiestas are far more common than the more famous and well-known sport of bullfighting.  Blood fiestas are not performed for the entertainment of tourists.  They are gruesome traditions that kill thousands more animals than bullfighting — often in the most barbaric ways imaginable. Yet millions of the Britons who visit Spain every year will be unaware of their existence.
The Toro de la Vega is a case in point. It’s a centuries-old tradition in which a bull is chased through the streets by thousands of men who beat it with sticks and pelt it with stones. Although this is chilling to watch, it is only when the bull reaches the meadows outside Tordesillas that the spectacle begins in earnest.  The bull whose brutal death I witnessed had been given the name Platanito (meaning ‘little banana’) by animal welfare officers. I watched as men on horseback tried to skewer it with their eight-foot long spears. Spear after spear sliced open his back. Once his strength began to ebb, the men became increasingly bold and moved in closer. This was the bit they clearly loved most of all — a time when they could begin to play with the bull without serious risk of injury to themselves.
I watched as one horseman impaled the creature and twisted and turned his spear deeper and deeper into him.  This seemed to fatally weaken the animal and he fell onto his front knees snorting and bellowing — his distress apparent.  Within moments, several more spears had pierced his body.  Finally, Marcos stepped forward to deliver the fatal blows to the bull’s heart and neck. It was, mercifully, the end of
Platanito’s suffering.  Although the Toro de la Vega is undoubtedly horrifying to witness, what is equally shocking is the fact that we are all helping to pay for it. The European Union spends £37 million a year directly subsidising blood fiestas like the Toro de la Vega and other sports, such as bullfighting. It also ploughs tens of millions of pounds into the towns that host them and has begun renovating dilapidated bullrings.  As if that weren’t bad enough, now some MEPs are campaigning to have bullfighting and blood fiestas officially recognised as part of Europe’s cultural heritage.  If this should succeed, then not only will the Toro de la Vega be given an official veneer of respectability, it may eventually become eligible for European arts and cultural funding.  ‘We’re all tightening our belts inBritain and yet our money continues to flow into bullfights and blood fiestas across Spain,’ says Jaqueline Foster, Conservative MEP and
vice-president of the European Parliament’s Intergroup on the Welfare and Conservation of Animals.
‘The Spanish can support these fiestas with their own money, if they want to, but there’s absolutely no way they should be using ours to do so. I have been unable to find a single good reason why we are being forced to pay for these horrible sports.’
I decided to delve into the EU’s Byzantine bureaucracy to find out why it is spending so much of our money supporting blood fiestas and why it appears resolutely determined to carry on doing so. And, perhaps predictably, it turned into a tale of bungling, patronage and, some might say, corruption. The trail
begins 100 miles west of Madrid at Finca Valdeolivas, the farm that bred Platanito. It’s a lavish estate set in beautiful countryside owned by the Gil family.  Judging by the number of expensive cars and pick-up trucks parked in their driveway, they must be one of the richest families in the area. Finca Valdeolivas is in the heart of Spain’s fighting bull country and it’s clear the Gils are taking full advantage of it.  Hundreds of the animals graze contentedly in the long shadows cast by cork and oak trees. Sleek Andalusian thoroughbred horses, raised as the mounts for bullfighting picadores, lie in nearby sun-drenched fields. It is a rural idyll — and one largely funded by northern European taxpayers.  I tried to talk to Don Miguel Ángel Gil Marín, head of the family that owns the Finca, but he declined to answer my questions. I was, however, able to examine the EU’s accounts and discover that Finca Valdeolivas received at least £139,000 in subsidies last year. It is impossible to say what proportion of this money directly supported the rearing of bulls for blood fiestas, but the farm certainly seems to specialise in breeding them. The majority of the money flowing into Finca Valdeolivas is from the Common Agricultural Policy’s Single Farm Payment scheme.  This pays landowners a fee for managing the land, leaving them free to farm it in any way they choose. The idea is to reward landowners for farming less intensively and to cut back on the type of over-production that led to the infamous wine lakes and butter mountains.  This scheme encouraged landowners in Britain to progressively switch to more environmentally friendly farming practices such as organic and freerange. In Spain, farmers are using the money to rear animals for blood fiestas and bullfights.  In effect, every bull they rear for a blood fiesta earns them £183 for every year of its life. The EU rewarded Finca Valdeolivas with £915 for breeding Platanito for the Toro de la Vega.
Given that Spain sacrifices at least 40,000 bulls a year, the EU’s annual subsidy to the industry totals almost £37 million.  Since the new subsidy scheme was introduced in 2005, the EU has spent £185 million supporting blood fiestas and bullfighting.
By the end of next year, the total will likely top a quarter of a billion pounds. But even this is likely to be the tip of an iceberg, as the exact subsidy figures are disguised within the EU’s maze of bureaucracy.
Spain receives £4.3 billion in agricultural support every year. Campaigners fear that a significant proportion of this is siphoned off to provide more animals for fiestas across the country.  Spanish towns and cities also receive an array of grants to help them preserve their cultural heritage. The country now
receives £1.1 billion a year from the EU’s Rural Development  Programme, for example, a proportion of which is being used to renovate bullrings. In the towns of Haro, in the province of Rioja, and Toro, in Zamora, the EU is so proud of its support that it has erected big signs outside the bullrings highlighting its contribution.  It’s virtually impossible to find out exactly how much is funnelled into bloodsports through such grants because the EU cannot, or will not, divulge how it spends its money. Northern European taxpayers are not just helping pay for bulls for blood fiestas but also for cows, goats, chickens and geese,
too.  Up to 15,000 towns and villages sacrifice animals as centrepieces of their fiestas — often out of the gaze of tourists and the media. Some involve hanging chickens upside down by their feet on washing lines while townfolk ride underneath and pull their heads off to win prizes.  Another involves placing chickens in boxes with their heads poking out of the top. Local men and boys then chop off as many heads as possible while blindfolded. In yet another fiesta, birds are sealed inside clay pots and stoned to death.
Although such cruel games are now theoretically banned, they are still common throughout Spain. This may be because the country’s animal welfare laws have one curious exemption: animals may be mistreated so long as it’s necessary for the smooth running of a fiesta. Even if a blood fiesta does not
involve the immediate death of an animal, it can still inflict grotesque cruelty.  Next month, for example, Spain’s fire-bull festivals begin. In these, burning balls of wax and paraffin are attached to a bull’s horns and the terrified animal is chased through the streets. Most survive, but they often suffer horrific injuries. For its part, the European Commission (the executive body of the EU) says it genuinely does not know how much money it is pumping into Spanish blood fiestas.  ‘The member states and our cultural partners are responsible for selecting the projects that we fund,’ said a spokesman for the European Commission.  ‘We do not know, for example, if a bullring that has been renovated with our help is being used to host bullfights or not.’ Perhaps this attitude is not surprising, as the EU’s accounts are notoriously opaque.
Independent auditors have thrown out the EU’s accounts for 13 out of the past 15 years because they failed to provide ‘a true and fair account’ of its spending.  Auditors generally use such phrases to signal either incompetence or corruption — or both.  ‘It’s impossible to say how much money is being siphoned off,’ says Tony Moore, director of the British charity Fight Against Animal Cruelty In Europe.  ‘Blood fiesta organisers certainly think it’s a lot. They tell me that in the past they could only afford to sacrifice one or two animals whereas now they can torture and kill ten.’ He notes that support for the fiestas and
bullfighting exists throughout the upper reaches of the EU. 

The Portuguese President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso is a keen supporter. He overturned Portugal’s 76-year-old ban on ‘death bullfighting’ when he was the country’s prime minister. Animal welfare campaigners fear that if the blood fiestas gain the official European seal of approval then the EU will start pouring even more money into them.  Ironically, just as MEPs are calling for enhanced support for bullfighting and blood fiestas, the Spanish are increasingly turning against them. One recent poll found that 60 per cent of people opposed bullfighting.  Another suggested that only a quarter had any interest in it and that such support is largely confined to older generations. This gradual shift in attitudes came to the fore in July when Catalonia’s regional parliament voted to ban bullfighting.  The ban has shocked many old school Spaniards who are keen to dismiss it as no more than a bid by the independent-minded region to carve out its own distinct identity. They insist that bullfighting and blood fiestas such as the Toro de la Vega are not cruel.  Instead, they claim that it’s a beautiful form of art that is central to Spanish culture. When I watched Platanito die last week I saw no evidence of the beautiful art
and rich culture that Spain is famous for.  What I saw was a celebration of mob rule, of cruelty, of wickedness, even. As I watched Platanito’s eyes close for the last time, I felt sick to my stomach to know that I had helped pay for his death with my taxes — just as you had too.
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LACS: YOUR taxes are subsidising bullfights

STOP THE SUBSIDIES!
League Against Cruel Sports
6 August 2010

Bullfighting has been banned in the UK since 1835 and is illegal in many other European Union countries, such as Germany and the Netherlands. However, the European Commission is using our tax money to subsidise the breeding of bulls for bullfights.

It is estimated that bull breeders who provide bulls for bullfighting receive around 30 million Euros a year in subsidies through the EU. These subsidies are dispensed through the Common Agricultural Policy, to which the UK contributes billions of pounds each year.

. . . Bullfighting is an appallingly cruel and totally outdated ‘sport.’ Bullfighting is a dying industry, but these subsidies are helping to keep it alive. And it’s YOUR money that’s keeping it alive.

We need your help to send a strong message to European decision-makers that bullfighting has no place in a modern, civilised society. Please join campaigners across Europe and take action now. Email Dacian Ciolo?, the European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, and tell him to stop the subsidies.

Catalonia’s recent decision to ban bullfighting is further evidence that this ‘sport’ lies in the past. The European Union must respect the wishes of its citizens and stop subsidising cruelty.

Thank you so much for your support.

Yours,
Liam Raftery
Campaigner