No Elephant Rides at Fair This Year, But Don't Thank Activists: ICYMI

Davisburg, MI — Endangered African elephants won’t return to the Oakland County Fair, which opened Friday for a 10-day run, but it’s hardly a victory for the animal rights activists who cited 18 complaints by the USDA and circus industry stalwarts in a call on fair officials to sever their relationship with a circus that owns the elephants and other exotic animals.

The absence of elephants this year is not a result of shared outrage over the treatment of Bombi and Daisy, two individuals captured in the wild in 1974 that PETA claims don’t receive proper veterinary care, sufficient space to roam or appropriate food.

Rather, the fair dates changed this year to avoid conflicts with the Fourth of July, andCircus Pages was already booked and sending its elephants and other exotic animals elsewhere for the fair’s run, fair co-manager L.C. Scramlin told Patch.

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In the place of elephant rides, camel rides will be provided by Show-Me Safari Petting Zoo from Missouri, Scramlin said.

He downplayed the opposition, saying the change.org petition, started three years ago by Ben Eidt, of Troy, hasn’t reached its 5,000 signature goal in three years. In a letter supporting the petition, Eidt wrote that he found the circumstances surrounding the highly intelligent animals’ capture and consignment to never-ending circus acts “disturbing.”

The far better-known Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus agreed last year to retire its elephants in a decision that capped years of legal battles and stormy protests centered on what activists see as the sentient beings’ life in chains and small, cramped spaces that deprive them of the space they need to move and remain agile.

Smaller circuses are also increasingly targeted by activists who say elephants should be allowed to live a dignified life in a place where they have acres to roam.

Scramlin said fair organizers “bounced around” the idea of discontinuing the elephant act before the scheduling conflict.

“We would be blind if we didn’t know there was some opposition, but it never was real vocal here,” he said, adding that the majority of supporters of Eidt’s petition live outside of the United States. “The very last Sunday of our fair was the first time some people in the audience spoke up in protest.”

What else is happening at the fair, including a free grandstand appearance by “Duck Dynasty” star Jules Jeptha “Jep” Robertson? Click here to find out.

Fair organizers checked out Circus Pages’ record and were “just comfortable” that its animals are well treated, Scramlin said. Many of the animals, including rare white tigers and white lions, are from 30 to 36 years of age and have been raised by the Pages family as orphans.

Scramlin doesn’t expect animal rights activists to like this year’s camel rides any better than they did the elephant rides. But with an agricultural fair that aims to reconnect suburban residents with their lost farm heritages, fair officials have to be careful about where they draw the line on animal-welfare complaints, he said.

Photo: jinterwas via Flickr / Creative Commons