Hold Ringling Accountable for Clyde’s Tragic Death

On July 13, 2004, a healthy, 2-year-old lion named Clyde died on a Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus train while crossing the Mojave Desert, where temperatures soared to 109°F. The train was en route from Phoenix, Arizona, to Fresno, California.

According to Frank Hagan, a veteran Ringling employee and lion handler who was present when Clyde died, the circus’s trainmaster refused repeated requests to stop the train so that the lions could be checked for signs of distress and provided with water. By the time the train finally stopped during mid-afternoon in Parker, Arizona, the lions had been traveling for more than six hours in the desert heat without being watered in closed, poorly ventilated boxcars. According to Hagan, Clyde “was not moving, barely breathing, and his tongue was hanging out of his mouth. ... Clyde breathed his last breath within moments of our arrival.” Clyde is believed to have died from heatstroke and dehydration.

The tragic death of Clyde appears to be a clear violation of multiple sections of the state of Arizona’s anti-cruelty statute. A number of the violations are felony offenses.

An investigation of this incident is likely to prove that Clyde, trapped in an overheated boxcar and helpless to escape the suffocating heat, suffered cruel mistreatment and neglect as defined in the statute and that Ringling and its agents were aware of the problem as well as the consequences of their decision to ignore the pleas of Mr. Hagan, and thus should be charged with multiple counts of felony cruelty to animals.

Please write a polite letter to the prosecutor for the town of Parker, Arizona, and urge him to thoroughly investigate Clyde’s death and to file appropriate charges against Ringling and all other culpable parties for violations of Arizona’s anti-cruelty statute:

Martin Brannan
La Paz County Attorney
1320 Kofa Ave.
Parker, AZ 85344
928-669-6118
928-669-2019 (fax)

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