Hagan also states that Ringling quickly and covertly installed misters in the lions’ boxcar before the USDA arrived to investigate Clyde’s death, in an apparent attempt to make it seem that the circus had been providing the lions with a cooling spray of water, when, in fact, the animals had not had any relief from the suffocating heat. He reports that Ringling officials expressly prohibited him and others with knowledge of Clyde’s death from talking to USDA inspectors in order to keep the USDA in the dark.
This is not the first time that Ringling has tried to impede government investigations into animal abuse.

According to a March 26, 2001, internal USDA memo, “This is a request to subpoena to compel testimony and provide documentation ... under the [Animal Welfare Act (AWA)]. ... I have been involved in an investigation into allegations of elephant abuse and exhibiting elephants infected with TB by Ringling Brothers Circus. ... The investigation has been very frustrating in that Feld Entertainment has not been cooperative with allowing the USDA to review medical records on the elephants, and that key witnesses will not cooperate due to court settlements with Feld Entertainment that prevent them from discussing any circus issues with anyone.”

An August 23, 1999, incident report from the Humane Society of Santa Clara Valley reports that Ringling veterinarian Bill Lindsay and two other circus employees surrounded a humane investigator in a threatening manner and angrily confronted the investigator in an attempt to impede an investigation into bloody lacerations found on numerous elephants.

On August 6, 1999, the USDA was forced to subpoena a necropsy report from Texas A&M University’s veterinary laboratory for Benjamin, a 4-year-old elephant who had drowned, after Ringling ignored AWA requirements and two investigators’ July 28 request for the documents.

And an internal USDA memo dated February 25, 1999, detailing injuries found on two baby elephants during a February 9, 1999, inspection, states, “[Ringling veterinarian] Dr. Lindsay was very upset and asked repeatedly why we could not be more collegial and call him before we came. I explained to him that all our inspections are unannounced. ... All Ringling personnel were very reluctant to let us take pictures [of the calves’ rope lesions].” Ringling personnel were described as “badgering,” “disgusted,” “antagonistic,” and “defensive” toward the inspectors.