Retired Navy chief calls on Rumsfeld to stop promoting cruel circus

http://www.peta.org/mc/NewsItem.asp?id=7667

RETIRED MILFORD NAVY CHIEF CALLS ON RUMSFELD TO STOP PROMOTING CRUEL CIRCUS

Norfolk, Va. — On behalf of PETA, Milford native and retired U.S. Naval Master Chief Petty Officer William Killion has fired off a letter to U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, urging him to discontinue his department’s "America Supports You" partnership with the cruel Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, which provides military personnel and their families with special ticket offers.

Signing the letter along with Killion—who served in the Navy for 22 years—were eight other retired, former, and current members of the armed forces representing the Navy, the Marines, the Air Force, and the National Guard. Killion pointed out that while the Department of Defense promotes Ringling, another cabinet-level department, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), is conducting three concurrent investigations of the circus for possible violations of the Animal Welfare Act involving the unnatural deaths of two animals and the alleged beating of a third.

The USDA is currently investigating the death of a 2-year-old lion named Clyde, who apparently died of heatstroke while traveling through the intense heat of the Mojave Desert in a poorly ventilated boxcar; 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; and the forceful and excessive use of a steel-tipped bullhook on a chained 7-year-old elephant, an incident that was caught on videotape.

"The mandate of the Department of Defense is to protect innocent lives, not exploit them, and we extend that commitment to abused circus animals," says Killion. "The promotion of Ringling by one federal agency while another is investigating the circus is a clear conflict of interests."

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