By Ingrid E. Newkirk
Sometimes when you lose, you still win. That’s how I look at a Virginia circuit court jury’s decision in March to dismiss People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’ suit against Kenneth Feld, CEO of Feld Entertainment, which owns Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Even though the jury, which deliberated for nine hours, didn’t rule in PETA’s favor or for Feld (whose counterclaim against PETA was also dismissed), many of the details of Feld’s sordid conspiracy to destroy animal protection groups were finally made part of the public record and cannot be ignored.
However one feels about animal rights, most Americans agree that free speech and peaceful assembly are rights that must never be trampled. A wealthy man does not have the right to prevent PETA or anyone else from engaging in peaceful, legal activities simply because he has the cash to pay others to interfere with that right. This is what our civil suit against Feld was about. We uncovered details of a decades-long conspiracy, which involved illegal acts, to destroy animal protection groups’ lawful right to challenge Ringling’s exploitation and abuse of animals.
Our suit exposed the details of an operation involving at least 16 agents and overseen by Clair George, former head of covert operations for the CIA, who, together with other operatives, received millions of dollars from Feld and his entities. For a full decade, between 1988 and 1998, these operatives illegally recorded conversations in California and found ways to obtain highly confidential bank account numbers and bank information, credit card information, personal medical information, confidential internal financial records and personnel information on PETA staff and others. This information was used to mount counter-protests and use other means to try to thwart perfectly peaceful and protected efforts to challenge Ringling’s exploitation and abuse of elephants and other animals.
Feld claimed that he was ignorant of these activities even though at least three witnesses testified that Feld received regular reports on the operation and Feld’s senior vice presidents, other senior staff, his controller, accountants and auditors knew what was going on. He presented no witnesses in his defense. Instead, his attorneys claimed that PETA wasn’t “hurt” by these illegal acts. PETA did continue to grow and gain support during these years, but we will never be able to measure how much more we could have grown if Feld’s employees hadn’t mislead the public about our work.
Perhaps most disturbing is Feld’s contention that his employees were only doing what PETA does–working undercover to gather information. What the Feld operatives did is a far cry from legally exposing violations of federal and state animal protection laws in circuses, on fur farms, in slaughterhouses and laboratories. PETA investigators do not steal documents and do not illegally record conversations. What we do is turn over all evidence we gather regarding violations of law to regulatory authorities and request formal investigations. Feld’s attorneys were fined for obstruction of justice during the trial for withholding information.
While Feld was spending millions of dollars on infiltrating animal rights groups, his animals were going without the most basic necessities. Between 1990 and 1997, Ringling was cited repeatedly by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for keeping dogs, bears and primates in cramped, undersized cages; for failure to repair or replace severely deteriorating elephant boxcars and rusty cages; for failure to provide veterinary care and to maintain medical and routine husbandry records; and for failure to dispose of expired medications. Federal inspectors also found elephants with hair loss and tissue damage on their legs from chaining. Exhibits from the trial reveal that elephant trainers used hot shots on elephants and that a beating of an elephant named Juno left her with 22 bullhook wounds.
Ringling’s long and shameful history of animal abuse includes the death of a 2-year-old lion named Clyde, who apparently died of heatstroke while traveling through the Mojave Desert in a poorly ventilated boxcar and the death of an 8-month-old elephant named Riccardo, who was destroyed after fracturing both hind legs when he fell off a circus pedestal. The circus paid a $20,000 fine to settle charges of failure to provide veterinary care to another dying baby elephant. Currently, Ringling is the subject of four investigations by USDA , the latest involving the alleged wounding of a baby elephant who fled a “trainer.”
PETA will appeal the ruling, but what’s really important is that although it came out in the trial that boxes of videotapes, audiotapes and secret documents were destroyed by Feld’s people, much of the truth is now public. Anyone who delves into it will realize that a wealthy, powerful corporation has stooped to illegal, dirty tricks to prevent circus-goers from finding out how Ringling animals are treated.
Ingrid E. Newkirk is President of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
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