Local animal rights activists plan to stage a protest near the Shinnecock Indian Reservation on Monday afternoon, just before the Cole Brothers Circus opens for a two-night run on the reservation.
The activists said the circus and tribe are flouting a Southampton Town ban on the display of large exotic animals for entertainment purposes and promoting the inhumane treatment of animals, such as tigers and elephants, that perform at the circus.
“It took us years to get the town to pass a law banning bringing exotic animals into the town and the circus is just going around the ban and went to the reservation,” said activist Dorothy Frankel, who led the push for the exotic animal ban in the town that was approved in 2005. “For a long time we worked with the tribal council to see if we could get it to where they could have the circus but without the elephants and tigers, but they wouldn’t agree to that. This year I said we can’t look away.”
The protesters will gather near the East Gate entrance to the reservation, on public property, at around 5 p.m. on Monday as the circus is preparing to open its big tent for the first of four shows on Monday and Tuesday nights.
Tribal leaders said this week that they have discussed the concerns raised by the animal advocates in the past and reviewed the manner in which the animals are treated by the circus handlers. Tribe officials said they found nothing objectionable with the operation that would warrant them insisting the animals not be brought to the shows at the reservation.
“We’ve looked at how and what they do with the animals, and we didn’t find any issue with the treatment of the animals,” Tribal Trustee Lance Gumbs said.
Ms. Frankel pointed to a press release issued just this week by national animal advocacy group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, that claims the Cole Brothers Circus recently agreed to pay a $15,000 fine issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for failure to provide adequate veterinary care, following a series of complaints filed by PETA stemming from at least two instances of what the group says was the brutal treatment of animals. The PETA statement includes video footage of what it alleges is one of the circus’ employees striking an elephant.
A call placed at the Cole Brothers Circus headquarters in Florida was not returned.
The circus has been holding its shows on the reservation for the past four years, after pitching its tents for decades—including three years after the town’s exotic animal ban was adopted—on the Southampton Elks Lodge parade grounds along County Road 39. Hosting the circus, as well as last year’s Escape To New York music festival, are examples of the tribe taking advantage of its freedoms from local laws as a sovereign Native American nation to generate some revenue.
Mr. Gumbs pointed out that the tribe does not actively seek out groups to hold events on its powwow grounds.
“We don’t advertise it, but when people are interested, we’re here—we get lots of inquiries, some that we accept, some that we don’t,” he said. “We’d like to be one of the places that people consider for certain functions out here.
“We don’t have as much red tape as you get with the towns,” Mr. Gumbs continued. “We have our requirements and procedures, but it’s not the crazy permitting process. It’s a good thing for the tribe.”
Ms. Frankel said she and her fellow activists are investigating other avenues by which they could pressure or force the circus to stop using the animals, including possibly inquiring whether just transporting the animals through the town, on the way to the reservation, could be considered a violation.
