Shrine Circus Elephants Quarantined and Deported
TB Exposed Elephants Considered Public Health Risk


August 1, 2002 (Montreal) - People who attended the Shrine Circuses in Ontario last month may have been infected with more than the big top atmosphere.

Canadian and US government officials have confirmed that Agriculture Canada ordered the quarantine and deportation of Shrine circus elephants in the third week of July.

The elephants are owned by the Missouri based Tarzan Zerbini Circus, which is contracted by the Shriners to perform their circuses across Canada each summer. For more information on the Shriners circus click here.

Global Action Network has learned that the elephants had previously been exposed, through sustained contact, to a TB positive elephant, and are considered to pose a public health risk. The USDA had ordered that all elephants be taken off the circus tour and quarantined for treatment. Tarzan Zerbini's elephants were previously quarantined for TB testing in 1999. The elephants have been returned to Tarzan Zerbini's headquarters in Missouri for treatment.

Since 1996, scientists at the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) have identified 5 distinct strains of human TB in 8 different elephant groups in California, Illinois, Arkansas, Florida and Missouri. For more information on Tuberculosis in elephants, click here.

"The strains of TB in these elephants are transmissible to humans," stated Andrew Plumbly, Director of Global Action Network. "This just adds to the long list of animal welfare, human health, and safety reasons why the public should steer clear of circuses that exploit animals."

Tarzan Zerbini has been cited several times by the USDA for failure to administer veterinary care and properly maintain animal housing. The Tarzan Zerbini Circus also has a long history of animal abuse, including beating their animals in public. As a result of the miserable conditions they are confined in, Tarzan Zerbini's elephants and tigers have rampaged several times, injuring and killing people. For more information on the Tarzan Zerbini circus click here.

"Wild animals such as elephants and tigers suffer tremendously in a circus environment," concluded Plumbly. "The animals, which are often endangered in the wild, face a life of constant travel, intensive confinement, social and psychological deprivation, beatings, and neglect. It is in the best interests of the animals and the public to put a final end to circuses that use animals."

For more information on the lives of circus animals click here.

For more information, please contact Andrew Plumbly
Tel: 514-939-5525 andrew@gan.ca