Leslie Griffith

Reckoning at Ringling Bros.

This piece also published in the Huffington Post, February 5th, and the San Francisco Bay Guardian.

 Kenneth Feld, the sole owner of Feld Entertainment and Ringling Bros. Barnum and Bailey Circus did not appear in U.S Federal Court today. Buying his way out of trouble is a way of life for Ken Feld, but this time, he just may be trapped. These animal rights people are not clowning around! Many in the courtroom craned their curious necks to get a glimpse of him, but he ditched the Superior court proceedings.

Feld stayed true to his reclusive reputation and played the role he always does: the illusive circus master who calls the moves behind the scenes.

Still, in true P.T Barnum fashion, the sleight of hand and manipulation of words got precision delivery on his behalf. In the first few hours of the trial, some of the most famous and expensive mouthpieces money can buy sang the praises of Ringling Bros. An entourage of Fulbright and Jaworski attorneys turned a weapon of torture, "The Bull Hook," used by Ringling handlers with reckless disregard against the endangered Asian elephants into a harmless sounding "guide." "Advocate" (one who speaks for those who often cannot speak for themselves) became a dirty word. A world renowned elephant expert who testified today was accused of advocating for the elephants!

As seeds of affirmation were sown by the high powered defendant's attorneys, the plaintiff's attorney scorched the earth with a DVD disc and a finger -- pressing play. The video appearing on the plasma court televisions were in some cases heart-breaking and in others horrifying.

For world renowned elephant expert Dr. Joyce Poole, who was the first expert witness of the trial and has studied elephants her entire life, watching Ringling's handlers seemed to physically cause her pain.

 "These animals should not be chained 20 hours a day, beaten with bull hooks and forced to perform these un-natural acts. They are extremely intelligent creatures, they mourn their dead, they use tools, they help their friends up when they are ill, they are extremely social." At one point, while watching a Feld Entertainment video of an Asian elephant "Shirley" giving birth, (Shirley's named after Kenneth Feld's aunt who raise him after his mother died) Dr. Poole choked up.

"In the wild it's a matriarchal system. The women teach the mother how to deliver a baby; they stroke it and talk to it for months. What you saw there is very un-natural."

The Humane Societies attorney, Katherine Meyer, says  Ringling immediately takes the baby away from the mother and the bonding process never takes place."Often, they will say the baby would not bond, but they don't want the baby to bond, it causes discipline problems later."

This has been an almost surreal process for me. After 10 years of waiting, Kenneth Feld just a week before this trial, settled an obstruction of justice lawsuit filed by a journalist. It was a strong case and put on display the lengths to which Kenneth Feld resorts in order to protect what he considers his "all American" reputation. That journalist wrote things Feld found offensive. His former chief financial officer turned on him, revealing a plot of deceit and a slew of private investigators paid to ruin the reporter's personal life and her career as well. Her story reads like a John Le Carre spy novel. Feld employed former CIA deputy director of covert operations for the CIA -- Clair George for a little hanky-panky -- really---Clair George worked for the circus! Let the circus act began.  Tah-dah!

Kenneth Feld is no fellow we journalists want to piss off. As a fledgling journalist, Finley Peter Dunne once taught us that our job was to "afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted." But, that's not the way the job is allowed to work much anymore. Not if one wants to keep it. The journalist, whose career lay in ruins, asked for dozens of millions in damages and that ( I'm told behind the scenes) is pretty much what she got. But, it took ten years and her health before she got it. Plus, Mr. Feld only settled as this trial was about to begin. Kenneth Feld knows how to keep people quiet.

Beyond all that, I still cannot get over feeling as if the animal rights groups, the plaintiffs in this Federal courtroom are yelling "A tree's on fire, a tree's on fire!" as the forest if burning.The real issue that no one is talking about during this trial...the real elephant in the room is M-TB.

M-Tuberculosis was mentioned just one time during opening arguments in the trial. Most, if not all of Kenneth Feld's performing endangered elephants have had Mycobacterium Tuberculosis. As many as 26 have died over the last 15 years. Necropsies indicate most had tuberculosis when they died. While Kenneth Feld claims he is saving the species, he is systematically destroying it, and hiding the M-TB from circus patrons---putting their lives in danger.

 Tah Dah! And on with the show.

for more information on this story, please read "The Elephant in the Room."

The Greatest Lie on Earth

published in The Huffington Post on 7/28/08 Truthout.org

Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus paraded endangered Asian elephants through Los Angeles streets while fools born every minute watched.

People were foolish -- or perhaps naïve -- because all the Asian elephants have been exposed to -- or have had full blown mycobacterium-tuberculosis.

Several of them have fought hard to live and several have taken one or all three of the same drugs humans take to try and cure this deadly communicable disease.

The circus is a tuberculosis Petri-dish because it's impossible to tell when a 10,000 pound animal is cured.

According to health records -- a Federal judge ordered Ringling to release -- few of owner Kenneth Feld's elephants have managed to avoid exposure to tuberculosis, and most have taken a hard and sometimes deadly regiment of drugs to try and cure it.

But, there is no X-ray machine in the world big enough to produce evidence the animals is cured.

According to L.A's head of the health department, Patrick Ryan,

"Once these animals have been exposed to M-tuberculosis -- the same disease humans catch -- they (the elephants) should never be allowed to be around the public again."

Instead of lining the road to see the animals, circus patrons

"Should be given a disclaimer when they come into the arena explaining they could be exposed to a deadly contagious disease."

World renowned epidemiologist, Don Francis who fought hard to get the world to take HIV seriously, and was the first head of the Centers for Disease Control AIDS Division goes on to say, "Potential drug resistance is a distressing problem,"

"When humans give tuberculosis to the Asian elephants and the elephants become drug resistant and go back out into the public, the elephants could then not only infect others with TB, but with a drug resistant form of TB."

Consider this:

Every animal on the blue unit now performing in Los Angeles, then heading to San Diego and on to the San Francisco Bay area has either tested positive for tuberculosis, or has had a full blown case of M-TB.

With no way of looking at an elephants lungs until after death, there is no way to tell if they are cured. The test veterinarians give -- a trunk washing -- is notoriously unreliable.

At least two Ringling elephants have died after giving negative trunk washings for M-TB and during necropsies, tuberculosis- lesions were found on their lungs -- they were contagious the entire time they traveled the country and the world.

Every few days I get a Google alert on elephants and tuberculosis. When I first began writing about elephants and M-TB, many, including high ranking USDA officials refused to admit publicly that the disease is transferred from the elephants to humans and back again. The USDA now admits this.

As for the spread of tuberculosis, organizations that follow the disease know its trending up. A study in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, reported that 55 percent of elephant handlers from one herd -- caught tuberculosis. In some areas tuberculosis rates are soaring such as Santa Clara County where the circus will be headed in a few weeks.

According to one former elephant handler on the blue unit -- six of the elephant handlers working with the blue unit -- the one performing in Los Angeles County right now-- tested positive for tuberculosis.

Their bodies are ticking bombs as they wait to see whether they will come down with the disease itself.

Humans passed the M-tuberculosis to the elephants and the elephants pass it back to the handlers and presumably circus goers -- in an endless merry- go- round of heartache and death that not one government official is concerned enough to stop.

Why would the owner of Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus carry tuberculosis infected elephants across the country and around the world? It's simple -- you already know the answer -- money.

Kenneth Feld, owner of Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus -- was at one time -- the fourth richest man in America according to Forbes magazine, and he wants to keep it that way.

Since 1993, he has known his elephants were infected with tuberculosis...at least 30 died during the last 10 to 15 years.

His herds have been devastated. While he promises to conserve the species -- he systematically kills them -- while hiding the proof that they carried M-TB from one American city to another. His circus is not alone.

A circus that gives elephant rides to children just left Oakland. One of the elephants is so sick she can barely stand -- she tested positive for tuberculosis, and still the families come to let their children ride these animals.

http://www.lesliegriffithproductions.com/my_weblog/2008/04/circus-elephant.html

With heightened concern by the World Health Organization and the Center for Disease Control that a drug-resistant form of tuberculosis is emerging -- why not consider elephants with tuberculosis blowing moisture from their trunks inside a closed area -- a possible TB Petri dish?

Unimaginable greed and desire for money at the expense of human life keeps this cycle going.
Kenneth Feld has said the circus is not the circus without elephants. Cirque de Soleil has dispelled that myth.

The diseased animals would still be a secret except for health records Ringling was forced to release in Discovery after a Federal judge threatened to throw Kenneth Feld in jail if he did not turn the records over.

Feld is not facing criminal charges for knowingly taking the animals across the country, but many believe he should.

One former Ringling Bros., -- employee said -- under oath, "As the elephants enter and exit the arena, they blow moisture from their trunks hitting people in the face, exposing them to tuberculosis."

In depositions from a former chief financial officer and a former private investigator, both say as far back as 1993 Feld knew and hid the fact that his animals had tuberculosis.

Joel Kaplan, one of Kenneth Feld's Private investigators, says a Ringling veterinarian told him:

"About half the elephants in each of the shows had tuberculosis and the tuberculosis was an easily transmitted disease to human beings..." "I think it is immoral to have elephants traveling in every arena in the country with tuberculosis. "

Kenneth Feld will finally face charges in court for allegedly abusing the endangered Asian elephants. After 8 years and millions of dollar in a Herculean effort to put the court date off -- a gutsy Federal judge finally set a trial date for October 7th.

Feld is also entangled in another law- suit -- one that has been on- going for 10 years. He is charged with trying to ruin the career of a reporter who exposed his family's history.

http://archive.salon.com/news/feature/2001/08/30/circus/print.html

The forest is burning and your government officials are either whistling through the grave yard or too busy to notice.

                        

Circus Elephants and Tuberculosis

Dear friends,

The story below is one of many I have published  on the subject of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (otherwise known as M-tuberculosis) in elephants and its transference to humans. I have studied this topic for 5 years.

I have always approached the M-tuberculosis stories with a desire to protect both the elephants and the unsuspecting people sitting in closed arenas who are exposed to the M-TB.

There are a few elephants sanctuaries in the United States, and if the USDA finally did it's job by taking performing elephants exposed and sick with M-tuberculosis out of circuses, the obvious question is where would these elephants go? I would like to get people thinking about elephant sanctuaries funded by the circuses who have risked spreading a communicable disease by using these sick animals. But, as you know, billionaires do not like to part with the golden goose. Kenneth Feld, the sole owner of Ringling Bros.Barnum & Baily circus has been quoted as saying, " The circus would not be the circus without the elephants." But there is a federal law-suit in session in Washington D.C. right now in part because Kenneth Feld was forced to release the elephants health records. it took the plaintiff's council years of fighting to them...most of the health memos on the M-tb in the elephants are written to private investigators...not veterinarians in hopes of saving the herds. Ringling Bros. cared only about hiding the M-tb in its elephants, not protecting them or the circus patrons they profess to care for.

Before the ruling that would finally release the elephants health record, Kenneth Feld's famous attorneys told the judge they shouldn't be made public because reckless journalists would use them to send the wrong message. Like that journalist (me) in San Francisco. 

The judge threatened to throw the whole bunch of lawyers and the owner of Ringling Bros in jail if the records were not turned over. finally, they were. Ringling understands threats, they are masters of intimidation themselves. Ringling has a manual explaining how to use threats against reporters to maximum advantage. The M-tuberculosis was even more wide spread than i imagined and the lengths to which Kenneth Feld tried to hide the Asian elephants illnesses I hope will someday be judged by a jury. What was in those health records was proof that most of Ringling's herd was infected with M-tuberculosis and had been for years as they traveled across the country.But, also revealed where lies and deceit used to cover up that fact. Kenneth Feld knew how dangerous his elephants were to the public---emails prove it. He just did not seem to care.

I reported this story to anyone who would listen. Ringling came at me hard with rumors that i was no longer a journalist but a PETA member posing as a journalist. To this day, i have had respected reporters repeat that propaganda. P.T. Barnum knew how to spread a rumor and make it stick.

But, there is no denying the documentation of infected elephants ...many of whom took several drugs in an effort to cure them. Even today as the circus travels across the country, the problem is, there is no way to know if they are ever cured. Their lungs cannot be x-rayed. There is now a DNA test, but i doubt too many circus's will spend the money to use it. On Ringling's stud service website. An elephant named Shirley is mentioned. Shirley has active tuberculosis like so many other elephants at Ringling's "Center for Conservation." Shirley  can barely stand and is nursing a baby named Mable who will undoubtedly get TB from her mother ...its likely she already has it. Even so, expect to see Mable on the road. Ringling patrons love those baby elephants.

Mabel, like the rest of them will be used to perform with a communicable and transmittable disease until she too dies. i have counted 30 of the elephants that have died in the last 15 years...many were very young. ironically, the only reason the animals are allowed to be used as entertainment for humans is because Ringling Bros. promises to propagate the species. In 2005, there were so few young baby elephants the circus brochures featured several babies already dead. The brochure was  surrounded by other elephants, and more then 70 percent of those elephants were infected with TB. too.

  Perhaps someday the spreading of this disease from humans to elephants and back again will cease. Perhaps a judge will rule testing is needed to prove what scientists have written: that fifty percent of all elephant handlers exposed to M-tuberculosis come down with it themselves. They then, of course, carry it home to families,homeless shelters...etc.There is a circus in Oakland now, performing with two elephants who have tested positive for M-tb. The elephant in the picture to the left is one of them.Does this elephant look healthy to you? would you let your child ride this elephant? Is our government so distracted that no one is looking...and no one cares?The USDA is clearly working in Ringling's interest. Money talks, the truth walks.

Life is sacred. Money is not.  Corporations are big and powerful and sometimes nefarious, but they should not be allowed to put our lives at risk.

http://archive.truthout.org/article/leslie-griffith-the-elephant-room               

 Circus Elephants with Tuberculosis are a Real Threat.

Published  in The Huffington Post April 24h.

A little girl wiggles uncontrollably as she waits for the elephants to come out while sitting in the stands under the big tent. A bow in her hair, and her new glittery shoes on her feet. She's in her Sunday finest because the self proclaimed, "Greatest Show on Earth" is about to begin. She jumps from her seat as the endangered Asian elephants enter the closed arena. Her hands are now lifted high above her head in some Pentecostal fashion she believes will bring her closer to the mammoth ten thousand pound performers.

She holds cotton candy in one hand and reaches out with the other as the Asian elephants pass by hoping to get some of the moisture blown from their trunks on her body and in her hair. She loves the smell of them, the way they thud-thud- as they walk, and she's studying dinosaurs in school, and she believes they look prehistoric.

But this is where the scene screeches to an end. This is where the film rips, and the colors merge into Rorschach- black- burns on the screen. The circus boasts of "death defying acts," but she is possibly sitting closer to heartbreak and disease than she has the capacity to imagine.

"That little girl could be in very real danger of catching a communicable disease that could make her very ill or even kill her."

World-renowned epidemiologist and head of the first HIV division for the Centers for Disease Control, Don Francis says. Never one to back away from a fight, Francis is the subject of a movie about his fight to make the world understand another communicable disease---AIDS. And the Band Played On is the movie, and he became one of my heroes when I viewed it almost twenty years ago. Francis is a man who has taken on giants with deep pockets at great risk to himself for the public good. He knows denial kills.

He fought to prove AIDS was ravenous. He wanted funding to try to stop it. We in the Bay Area were attending so many funerals a day the crematoriums could not get to all the bodies in time to display the Urns, and many funeral homes would not touch the bodies at all. Francis knows that in the face of a communicable disease, denial, politics and lack of research money can perpetuate a modern day plague.

After two years of researching the transference of M-tuberculosis from Asian elephants to humans, I took my documents to Don Francis--now in San Francisco running a bio lab called Global Solutions for infectious diseases. I knew if my evidence was solid, Francis would not lie, and he would not be afraid of repercussions if it meant protecting the public. The documents included e-mails affidavits, and depositions. All had to do with Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus and the fact that the majority of their elephants from 1993- 2007 had m-tuberculosis, the same kind of TB humans contract. Many of the documents revealed that the elephants had been given one or more of the treatment drugs and either could not tolerate them or had become drug resistant. These are the same drugs humans take for m-tuberculosis. I well remember the week of our meeting because that same week one man, on one passenger plane, was found to have drug resistant M-tuberculosis. A few days later, congress held acrimonious hearings trying to figure out how one passenger could have boarded the plane exposing everyone inside.

When elephants enter an arena they often spew mucus from their spouts. If circus patrons are within shot of the effluence and the animal is sick, it could spread M-tuberculosis to the patron or worse. It could spread a drug resistant form of tuberculosis.

Last Sunday I opened up the San Jose Mercury News and found this article on the front page.

The article used CDC figures which indicate that tuberculosis increased in four of the Bay Area's five largest counties and San Jose had the highest tuberculosis rate of any large American metro city." For the scientists among you, read "The Elephant in the Room."

After 15 years of denying it, the USDA finally admits Asian elephants can pass m-tuberculosis to humans and vice- versa. For more on that

See this article on the Global Action Network website:   http://www.gan.ca/campaigns/circuses/factsheets/tuberculosis+in+elephants.en.html

Now ask yourself if you know anyone with M-tuberculosis. Then ask them whether they have been to the circus lately.

If you are tempted to believe the circus' family-friendly all-American image is real, consider this: every e-mail explaining the herds had m-tuberculosis is sent from Ringling's veterinarian to a private investigator or former CIA director. I have the documents. In other words hiding the TB was much more important than ever considering shutting down the circus while the elephants were treated.

Money or public health? Ringling chose money every time while our little boys and girls were sitting in their Sunday best excited as hell while becoming sitting ducks for a disease that could kill them.