Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey® Won’t Back Down To Animal Rights Extremists

Stephen Payne, vice president of corporate communications for Feld Entertainment, which produces the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey^® Circus, has some advice for beef producers on the topic of animal rights. “I don’t believe in turning the other cheek in a debate like this. You just get slapped twice,” he says. Payne contacted me after having read my article on carriage driver Tommy Doyle and his family’s Palmetto Carriage Works of Charleston, SC, in the June 7 issue ofBEEF Cow-Calf Weekly. That article detailed the challenges and the approach of the Doyle family in working with livestock in the heart of an urban area. Payne reports that the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey operation faces a similar challenge, in that it serves more than 10 million people annually and is under constant scrutiny – harassment really – from animal rights activists. Payne says Feld Entertainment, like the Doyle family, takes a firmly proactive stance when it comes to animal welfare. And, like the Doyles, he believes industries that rely on animals for their livelihoods must stick and work together...more