Pair of Animal-Rights Groups Protest Circus

A handful of protesters picketed the opening of a circus at Los Alamitos Race Track in Cypress Thursday, alleging that its performing animals are abused and mistreated.

“If children could see how sad the lives of these animals are, they would have to be dragged kicking and screaming to the circus,” said Jane Garrison, a spokeswoman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which organized the demonstration against the Sterling and Reid Bros. Circus.

Three members of a separate organization--the Animal Defense League, Los Angeles--also staged a protest near the entrance of the tent under which the circus acts are performed.

“We are the voice for these animals because they don’t have a voice,” said Pam Vlasak, a spokeswoman for the group.

She distributed copies of a lawsuit she said she filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Thursday stemming from an altercation she had with circus employees during a show last year in Ventura.

Two weeks earlier, the Humane Society of San Bernardino Valley seized several ponies from a trainer traveling with the circus, saying the animals were emaciated.

Members of both protesting groups on Thursday accused the circus of keeping animals in cages that are too small, using cruelty to train them and generally forcing them to perform in ways that are unnatural and demeaning.

Dawn Rafter, a spokeswoman for Sterling and Reid Bros., denied all those allegations, saying the circus animals--which include lions, tigers, horses, elephants and a dog--are conscientiously cared for and treated with respect. “The trainers treat them as their own children,” she said. “They eat better than some humans, and they are not treated cruelly.”

The one trainer whose horses were confiscated, Rafter said, is no longer with the circus.

“I love animals too,” she said. “If I thought there was a problem, I wouldn’t be here.”