Aleppo Shriners Will 'Keep All Options Open' After Animal Ban

WILMINGTON, MA — Wilmington's Aleppo Shriners are keeping "all options on the table" as they explore how to adjust to a new reality: traveling animal acts, like the Shriner Circus, are now illegal in Wilmington.

Town meeting voters narrowly decided Saturday to ban the participation of certain animals in traveling animal acts for public entertainment or amusement, including elephants, camels and non-human primates.

The annual five-day circus generates $450,000, about a quarter of the organization's revenues, Rag Top Unit Captain Roger Metcalf said.

"We have to regroup and figure something out," Metcalf said.

Metcalf was disappointed in the result — he "only had just a few minutes to try to tell an hour's worth of information" about the circus — but the "services never stop for the children" that the Shriners serve, he said.

The Shriners run specialty children's hospitals and free transportation to them.

The Aleppo Shriners have already been looking at alternatives to the animal circus for about five years, Metcalf said. Going back to Town Meeting to try to reverse the decision is also on the table.

"We're going to keep all of our options open," he said.

Metcalf thanked a town meeting attendee who said Saturday she had never been to the circus, but she would send them a check. They have already received it, Metcalf said.

"That kind of integrity in a person I really respect," he said. "We just need 10,000 more people to do it."

Christopher Huffaker can be reached at 412-265-8353 or chris.huffaker@patch.com.