Elephant abuse charge puts Big Top on trial
Date: 19-Dec-01
Country: USA
Author: Michael Kahn
Defense lawyers say the case against Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey trainer Mark Oliver Gebel is a legal charade designed to bring down the Big Top that has thrilled generations of children.
But animal rights activists say the trial will prove allegations that circus elephants are often treated brutally in the name of entertainment.
"This is a chance for the courts to say we've seen blood, we've seen a mark," said Tom Rider, a former Ringling Brothers barn worker who now campaigns against the circus.
"Win or lose, it is about the elephants. This is about their treatment," he said.
Santa Clara Superior Court Judge Linda Condron this week declined a defense motion to dismiss the charges, saying there was enough evidence to proceed with what could be an explosive legal confrontation between the circus industry and its animal rights critics.
The Gebel trial marks the first time activists have been able to invoke a decade-old California state law prohibiting elephant abuse which was passed after five trainers brutally beat an elephant at the San Diego Zoo in 1989.
