Circuses & spectacles
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1994:
Cesar, a runaway circus sea lion, was
recaptured on July 22 while napping on a parked
car, ending a four-day chase in Lake Maggiore,
Switzerland, during which activists demanded that
he be allowed to live in the lake. Cesar’s brother
Otto escaped with him, but was caught earlier––and
recaught after escaping again.
The Atlantic City SPCA said August 9
that it was satisfied with improvements the Great
Moscow Circus had made to animal holding condi-
tions at the Trump Taj Mahal Hotel, and would not
file cruelty charges. An exercise cage for the bears,
built at the insistence of Eileen Liska of the
Michigan Humane Society during the Moscow
Circus tour of 1988-1989, was reclaimed from stor-
age in Canada, and was to travel with the circus
throughout the rest of the current tour. The Taj
Mahal shows were continuously picketed by the
New Jersey Animal Rights Alliance.
Honolulu police shot an elephant who
went berserk August 20 at a Circus International
performance. Killing one trainer and severely injur-
ing another, the elephant stampeded out the main
exit into the street. Twelve spectators were hurt try-
ing to get away from elephant’s charge.
Eleven people were hurt on July 19 a s
four Clydesdale horses ran amok after breaking
away from a team of eight pulling a bandwagon in
Milwaukee’s annual Great Circus Parade.
Alligator-wrestling attendance shot up
at the Sunken Gardens in St. Petersburg, Florida,
when a 265-pound alligator newly captured from
Lake Okeechobee bit a wrestler––but after he bit a
second wrestler eight days later, he was retired to
an exhibition area.
