Shrine Circus Demo

I wanted to thank those of you who came out for our demos on Tuesday and Wednesday at the MTS Centre. We were so pleased to have 14 people out on Tuesday and 16 people on Wednesday. We had some media out on Tuesday and made it into the Sun but not on any tv stations.

Wednesday's crowd of circus goers seemed to be much larger than Tuesday's. On Wednesday the crowd was lined up from Portage Avenue all the way down to Graham as they stood in line waiting for the doors to open. All the while that people were standing in line waiting, we were able to hand out a lot of brochures and walk up and down the sidewalk with our signs which they were unable to avoid reading.

There was a mixed reaction to our message, from outright hostility and "boos" to acceptance, agreement and support. The little colouring books from PETA went over quite well with the children and the brochure that we designed asking people for their help to put an end to circuses with exotic animal acts was accepted and read by a lot of people. For all the brochures and information sheets that we handed out, there was very little paper littering the street after everyone was finally inside.

It was my sense that a lot of people standing in line were a little uncomfortable with the message that we were presenting, mainly because they realized that it was true. One of our signs had a large picture of a very sad elephant on it and the caption underneath was "Circuses make animals sad". I believe that this thought probably passed through a lot of people's minds when the elephants came into the ring that night and hopefully they left wondering whether perhaps there was something to our assertions that life in the circus is misery for animals.

We had some positive feedback from people that night and subsequently we have also been contacted by someone who, after attending the circus with his children and receiving our handouts, went home and did some of his own investigating on the internet. He came across the brutal video on the PETA website of the elephants being beaten and as a result of this has vowed never to take his children to a circus with animals again. One little victory for us, but I am sure that there were more that we will never know about.

So thanks to everyone who contributed. It is so reassuring to know that your actions are making a difference.

Regards,
Lesley Wise