PETA Wants To Turn Wall's Circus Drive-In Into Circus Animal Torture Museum

WALL, NJ — When word spread just after the turn of the New Year that the iconic Circus Drive-In on Route 35 was for sale, the call went out begging for someone to step up and buy it.

The post by an employee of the restaurant circulated far and wide and caught the attention of an unusual suitor: the animal rights organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

PETA would like to turn the 62-year-old landmark into "a vegan restaurant and empathy museum focusing on animals who suffer when exploited for entertainment in circuses," according to a letter from PETA president Ingrid Newkirk to Gerald Norkus of Wien Real Estate, the company handling the sale of the property. PETA is hoping to lease the site long-term at a reduced rate, Newkirk said.

"PETA's vision to showcase the practice of capturing wild animals and training them by intimidation and sheer force would be a modern addition to the Jersey Shore — one that promotes compassion for tigers, elephants, and other animals," Newkirk said in a news release about the inquiry. "Children would see that the chains and cages in circuses deprive animals of everything that's natural and important them, from the ability to play and socialize to the simple act of stretching their limbs."

Norkus called the prospect of a PETA-run museum on the site "unlikely."

The restaurant, with a smiling clown by the side of Route 35 beckoning patrons to stop in for 1950s-style car-hop service on a menu known for its burgers, lobster rolls and onion rings, was listed for sale earlier this month. It had opened in 1954 and operated continuously as a restaurant since then. In recent years it had been a summer gathering point for classic car buffs and others who loved the throwback feel of the restaurant on a summer's evening.

The property was put up for sale or lease because the owner no longer wanted to run it as a restaurant and the owner, whom Norkus described as an investor, would like to get as much money for the site as possible. The property on Route 35 is very large and as such is very valuable, Norkus said.

Newkirk's letter said the proposed exhibit would display "the extremely cruel training practices used throughout circus history (and) would include videos of elephants and tigers being beaten and electrocuted in order to coerce them into performing confusing and unnatural tricks."

"The museum would display a bullhook — the sharp hooked weapon used by circus trainers to beat elephants into submission—and a disconnected electric prod used to shock animals, which visitors could view and touch in order to gain a better understanding of the pain that the animals experience," the letter said.

It also would include "a real circus boxcar used to transport animals for 50 weeks a year," with life-size models of animals to show how cramped the conditions are, along with "some model feces to represent what they're forced to stand in," the letter said.

PETA would use part of the property as a vegan restaurant and snack shop that would sell products "such as animal crackers that don't feature caged tigers or other captive animals," the group said in the news release, which also is posted on its website.

Norkus said that while a museum would likely be an acceptable use under the property's current highway commercial zoning, putting one on the site mostly likely would require knocking down the building currently there and building something new, Norkus said.

"Now we're getting pricey," he said.

Norkus said there are "a lot of people interested" in the property and in trying to continue running it as a restaurant and he was anticipating receiving some offers on the site shortly.

Here is the full letter PETA sent to Norkus:

Circus Drive-In from Google Maps