Elephant Tests Positive for TB at Ringling Breeding Compound

PETA first learned from an informed source that a male elephant at Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus’ breeding facility in Polk City, Florida, has tested positive for Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB) a human strain of the deadly disease that can be spread from elephant to human, human to human, and human to elephant.

PETA has sent an urgent letter to Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Commissioner Charles H. Bronson, urging him to immediately place Ringling’s elephant-breeding compound under quarantine.

A quarantine of TB-infected Ringling elephants is not without precedent. In September 1999, the Florida Department of Agriculture quarantined Ringling’s Williston, Florida, facility because elephants there were diagnosed with the disease.

Now the disease can apparently be found in Ringling’s second facility, where some two dozen elephants, including babies, may have been exposed to this highly contagious bacterial lung disease.

Is Ringling Spreading TB With Its Sloppy Handling, Testing, and Treatment?

According to a September 2005 USDA inspection report, Ringling transferred an elephant named Siam from its once-quarantined Williston facility to its breeding compound. Siam, who was exposed to other diseased elephants at Williston, tested positive in 1999.

• Last September, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) cited Ringling for failure to dispose of expired and undated TB drugs.
• In August 2004, a Ringling employee who had contact with the elephants who travel with the circus tested positive for exposure to TB.
• At least eight of Ringling’s elephants—including two who were destroyed—have tested positive for TB since 1998.
• In November 2002, the USDA cited Ringling for failure to test four elephants for TB and warned, “TB is a disease that is dangerous to both man and animals. Animals must be tested in a timely manner for their protection as well as for their handlers.”
• In September 2000, Ringling was cited by the USDA for failing to provide veterinary care to an elephant named Tillie who had been diagnosed with TB.
• In February 1999, a USDA report indicated that TB tests for one elephant were not available for review and no treatment was instituted for another elephant with positive TB status.

Ringling Hides TB From the CDC, Puts the Public at Risk

In a sworn deposition, Joel Kaplan, a private eye who for 20 years had performed security and wire-tapping services for Feld Entertainment, which owns Ringling, stated, “[A]bout half of the elephants in each of the shows had tuberculosis and [it] was an easily transmitted disease to … human beings. … I was asked … to find a physician who would test the people [in] the circus to see if they had tuberculosis but who would destroy the records and not turn them [in to] the Centers for Disease Control [and Prevention].”

What You Can Do

• Contact Commissioner Bronson and urge him to quarantine Ringling’s Polk City facility.
• Forward this to a friend or post it at your favorite online chat or bulletin board.