MASON CITY – Mason City police were called Sunday night about a complaint about the treatment or condition of elephants at the circus that was in town at the North Iowa Events Center.
According to police, at about 7:10 PM Sunday evening, police took a call from a citizen who asked police to check on the condition of elephants who were performing at the Shriner’s Circus at the All Season’s Building at the events center. Reportedly, some of the animals had sores and some were concerned about their treatment by handlers.
However, police told NIT that the “elephants appeared fine and did not appear to be in distress.”
Earlier that day, there were some protestors near the area where the circus was held. They also formed a petition earlier in the week, asking people to support not bringing the circus back to Mason City.
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the question should NOT be what gives the police officer the knowledge If an elephant is healthy or not. It should be what gives the caller the Idea they are mistreated. Was the Possible anonymous caller an expert? Should the caller be cited for a false police report? And yes if the caller was sooo concerned why not call the proper people who would know these things. Typical trouble maker who probably didnt leave their name.
Why just the elephants? What about the tigers,camels, phonies and all other animals? Lets take out all the animals then we would be left with a awesome circus wouldn’t we? As far as i saw the elephants were the healthiest and happiest animal there.
Hahaha “support PETA”. PETA euthanized over 98% of there sheltered animals last year and through them in the dumpster.
Mother believes that the more appropriate Police response would have been to involve a Vet who is trained to assess animal health and welfare.
Police simply do not have the skills to make this kind of judgement. Would you leave it up to an officer to assess physical or sexual abuse??
Standard protocol is that a DVM makes the call and we should insist that MCPD get with the times.
Maybe they should have just called a vet in the first place instead of wasting the MCPD’s time.
Maybe You’re supposed to contact your local officials if you see abuse but in this town and in this case it doesn’t matter now does it?
This is a question for the responding officer. How did you determine that these Elephants were ‘Fine’ and not in ‘Distress’ ?
I’m in no way supporting the abuse of animals in circuses. I have to wonder how the person who called the police thought that the responding officer would be able to determine if the animal was fine or in danger. Are they trained in that role?
I can hardly find fault with a local officer who doesn’t see suffering if that officer has had no training in animal behaviors.
All animals in a circus are in distress. I wasn’t there last night so I don’t know what the caller may have seen. You really don’t need a trained eye to know when an animal is in distress or being beaten. If I’m not mistaken I do believe some officers are supposedly trained in large animal rescue with that being said and to answer your question yes he should of known. I want to know what he saw last night to determine that everything looked fine.
Join and support PETA. They are on top of the Boycott Circus Campaign.
PEOPLE for the EATING of TASTEY ANIMALS???
People for Ethical Tazing of Assholes
Buzzard, you’re an animal. Don’t you want to be treated ethically?
🙂 🙂 🙂
FROM NIT STAFF: Do not type a comment like this again, or you will be banned.
Hey snowbird-did you ever hear of a I.P. Address? Everyone on the internet has one.
Under 500 signatures on the petition in a city of more that 25,000. Just shows how little people agree with this idiotic petition. I am curious on how many of these signatures are actually real people and not just some made up people to try and boost the number of signatures. The Facebook page supporting this petition has less than 200 member, seems kinda fishy to me. . . .BRING THE CIRCUS BACK MORE OFTEN!
In all fairness, the petition is about a week old, as I understand it. No advertising, just word of mouth, to gain signatures. On the 25,000+ population figure … I sometimes wonder what the real population of MC is. Most evenings, this is a ghost town. You could stand out on Federal Avenue by Sears and look north and south and not see a single car coming at you by 8 PM.
Here’s a constructive idea for you: Since you strongly support the circus, why not start a petition to encourage that it returns each year?
The circus won’t need a petition to come back. So, there is no need. I strongly believe this petition won’t deter them from coming back.
You are likely 100% correct.