Stealing this from the ASPCA...

Ringling Bros. to March Elephants into NYC

At around midnight on Wednesday, March 24, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus will host its annual “elephant walk” through Manhattan to Madison Square Garden. The Asian elephants will disembark the circus train in Queens and walk into Manhattan through the Midtown Tunnel, then across 34th Street to Madison Square Garden. MSG is hosting the circus from March 25 through April 4.

Although the sheer oddity of seeing elephants walking our city streets compels many to stay out late to watch the spectacle, the ASPCA would like to remind New Yorkers of the inherent cruelty of circus life for wild animals. The abuse of elephants by the Ringling Bros. circus has been caught on tape by animal welfare organizations and documented by state humane agencies and U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors.

To attend the elephant walk is to endorse Ringling’s ongoing mistreatment of these intelligent, sensitive and endangered creatures. We urge compassionate people to avoid this event—as well as the circus itself, which subjects its animal performers to inhumane training methods and unnatural periods of confinement.

Instead, we ask that you:

• Talk to your friends and family, especially your children, about why you will not be attending the elephant walk or the Ringling Bros. circus. Check out our list of cruelty-free circuses—ones that don’t feature animal performers.
• Write to management at Madison Square Garden: feedback.msg@thegarden.com and let them know that by hosting Ringling Bros., they are supporting cruelty to animals.
• Contact local newspapers, blogs and television stations to inform them about the cruelty inflicted on circus animals. 
• Fight animal exploitation and abuse by taking the ASPCA’s Pledge to Fight Animal Cruelty.

To learn more about circus cruelty, please visit ASPCA.org/circus.