Hawthorn Cries Foul--But Fair Remains Fouler

My mail this morning contained a typewritten letter from John Cuneo, President of the Hawthorn Corporation, the company that employs Juergen and Judit Nerger of the Champlain Fair’s Lion and Tiger Show. Mr. Cuneo was complaining that I’d misrepresented Hawthorn, which leases elephants, big cats and other animals to circuses, and he wanted to set the record straight regarding their violations of the Federal Animal Welfare Act.



• “Small Cages.” Cuneo explained that “the cages the animals were kept in were normal traveling cages. As their big cages had just been pasinted (sic) we did not move them until the next day but the inspectors have to find something.”



• What the inspectors actually found was that seven tigers had been housed in transfer/transport containers for almost two weeks. That’s a long time waiting for the paint to dry! Three of the cages, measuring just four feet high, with a floor footprint of 80 inches by 88 inches, held two adult tigers each, without room for the animals to really stretch or engage in what the inspectors called “postural adjustment typical of their species.”



• “Meat,” Cuneo continues. “We have special white fiberglass meat tables. There are posts in the corners and fly cloth is draped over them. Instead of just calling it to our attehtion (sic) she cited us. THAT’S INSPECTORS”



• What the inspection actually showed was that “frozen meat for 16 large cats” had been left in the sun for over four hours, covered with “pieces of a cardboard box” with “numerous flies landing on the meat.” No fly cloth, just scraps of cardboard protecting the food from infestation. The meat would have lain there another four-and-a-half hours, until after the day’s last performance at 7:00 p.m., according to the USDA, who noted that “meat thawed at temperatures in excess of refrigerator temperatures and with exposure to flies may become contaminated and not suitable for feeding and maintaining animals in good health.”



• “Guard Rope,” says Cuneo. “We have special guard fencing which they carry and which is used everywhere including Vermont. When they arrive they string a safty (sic) rope until the guard fence is unloaded. Of course they saw the rope and cited us.”



• Those pesky inspectors! What Mr. Cunceo didn’t dispute was that these were far from isolated incidents. Hawthorn Corporation has racked up almost $275,000 in fines for mis-handling or mis-treating their animals, and twice had their license suspended.


But hey, who's counting? As Champlain Valley Fair officials say, the Nerger Tiger and Lion Show is very "educational" and highly entertaining.



To learn the facts, you can find pdfs of the original United States Department of Agricutlure Inspection Reports online at http://www.aphis.usda.gov/animal_welfare/Inspection_Reports/C%20-%20EXHIBITOR/IL/THE%20HAWTHORN%20CORPORATION%20-%2033-C-0053.pdf

Bit Cat Rescue Addresses Animal Abuse at Fair

My "inbox" today included a copy of this letter from Carole Baskin, Director of Big Cat Rescue, to Mona Golub of Price Chopper Supermarkets:



Thank you for pulling Price Chopper's sponsorship of the fair that is promoting tiger abuse by enabling traveling acts that use big cats.




On behalf of our 100+ tigers and our 70,000+ supporters we want you do know that we really appreciate your compassion for the animals and your inability to be hood-winked by the promoters of such cruelty. With more than 16 years experience with 16 species of wild cats, including lions, tigers and leopards, I can assure you that life in captivity is inherently cruel to these cats. They are hardwired to roam hundreds of miles and life in cages is bad enough, but life on the road is no life at all.




The lies and excuses, such as "we only train by giving treats" and "we are doing this to educate" are parroted by animal abusers everywhere, but you were obviously intelligent enough to know that those attempts at justification just aren't true.




Most people know better. Online polls show that 85% (9012 people) oppose the exhibition of big cats at fairs. It seems that some of the fairs just haven't figured that out yet.




Thanks to your actions and others who are taking a similar stand across the county, they will get the message and the abuse will finally come to an end. Thanks for being one of the shining lights. Attached is a letter thank you in a PDF form in case you want to send it out to all of your stores. Saving big cats from abuse is a cause that most of your people can really rally behind and I think they may take even more pride in their jobs when they see your leadership in action this way.






For the cats,


Carole Baskin, CEO of Big Cat Rescue

an Educational Sanctuary home
to more than 100 big cats

12802 Easy Street Tampa, FL 33625

Video Shows Fair Entertainers Whipping Tigers

Anyone who’s ever owned a cat knows you don’t own a cat. And you don’t train them to do stupid animal tricks, either, like standing on their hind legs while walking backward. It’s not part of the feline character.

That’s even more true of big cats like lions and tigers, who aren’t domestic house pets but wild predators with no inborn impulse to bond with humans or please a two-legged audience.

So circus events like the “Nerger Lion and Tiger Show,” currently running at the Champlain Valley Fair, that feature lords of the jungle doing sit-ups and jumping through flaming hoops require rather drastic training methods, namely, bullying, whips and physical intimidation.

Of course, circus performers say they love their animals and would never abuse them. According to a Burlington Free Press article in yesterday’s paper by Sam Hemingway, “the Nergers … said they do not harm the animals to make them perform.”

“It takes a lot of patience, a lot of treats,” Judit Nerger said as she stood outside the pen of a 3-month-old tiger cub at the fair Friday afternoon, according to Hemingway. “You never mistreat an animal like that. The training methods these days have nothing to do what they did 20 or 25 years ago.”

But unlike the Nergers, pictures don’t lie. To learn the truth, watch a video of Juergen Nerger using whips to control his big cats on YouTube at the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaKrXvgFb9k.

During the performance, the animals do the waltz, snake walk and even play leap frog—not normal feline behaviors, but unnatural acts performed out of fear.

On the McKay Entertainment website that books their shows, the Nergers say they consider their lions and tigers to be like part of their family.

Maybe those would be family members that they whip?

Pekinese Tramples Owner?

“Pussycat Mauls Cop.” Not a very likely headline, is it? Usually domestic pets don’t pose any major threat to human safety. A survey conducted in Colorado in 2007-2008 studied the incidence of dog bites. With a canine population of 700,000 in the seventeen counties studied, research found that only one-third of one percent of dogs ever bit people. Most of those were nips, of course, rather than fatalities. When it comes to safety, dogs truly are “man’s best friend.”

The case is quite different with circus animals. Unlike dogs, for example, no adult chimpanzee can be trusted in the company of human beings. When a 200 pound chimp named “Travis” escaped from his owner’s home in Connecticut last winter, a friend named Charla Nash tried to help re-capture the animal. Nash lost her nose and had her lips ripped off, sustained possible blindness and brain damage from the vicious assault that followed. Travis’ owner was also hospitalized for injuries incurred in trying to rescue her friend from the ape’s savagery.

Since 1990, there have been 43 human fatalities and hundreds of injuries from attacks by captive elephants. In the same period, there have been 25 deaths from attacks by lions, tigers and other big cats in circuses and carnivals. These are very large, powerful, wild animals, non-domesticated, and any creature of this type can be ferocious and unpredictable.

Yet when a local reporter raised safety issues regarding the “Nerger Lion and Tiger Act” with managers at the Champlain Valley Fair, he was brushed aside with the chuckle that there are probably more dog bites than lion attacks in Chittenden County.

But public safety shouldn’t be a laughing matter. And Fair officials ought to recognize there’s a difference between a tabby cat and a tiger.

Officer Jody Harvey, chief of animal control for the Burlington Police, is one person who knows the difference. Officer Harvey was key in helping pass Burlington’s ordinance banning circus shows featuring elephants, wild felines, bears and non-human primates back in 2004. She knew the police didn’t have the tactics, training, or containment facilities to handle a rampaging elephant—or a chimpanzee like Travis who tried to attack the police who arrived on the scene before they were able to shoot and kill him.

Are Essex Police any better equipped?

Lessons in Cruelty?

Champlain Valley Fair officials call the Nerger Lion and Tiger Show “educational,” but what kind of lessons are being learned from this type of entertainment?

A news item from the town of Pownal, Massachusetts, where the Nergers appeared last week, reported the twelve tigers and lone lion “leaping through hoops, walking backwards on their legs, playing leapfrog and taking commands from tamer Juergen Nerger.”

Will the spectators learn that tigers in the wild roam a territory of anywhere from twelve to four hundred square miles, or that in circus life they are confined to a lifetime of confinement in cages and constant transport from town to town?

Don’t expect that kind of “education” at the Fair. Instead, you’ll be likely to find spectacles like the “Bear Mountain” show, which the Champlain Fair featured in 2004. Bears living inside a sawdust filled, air conditioned double-wide trailer taught fair-goers about this specie’s “natural habitat,” while dancing, riding bicycles and standing on hind legs conveyed other important lessons to the onlookers.

Don’t be fooled. Circuses aren’t about education. And training big animals that have no inborn instinct to perform or please a human audience always involves bullying and intimidation. That’s why the Humane Society of the United States, the ASPCA, and every other reputable animal welfare organization in the country condemns these shows.

Learn more about what the Humane Society of the United States has to say regarding "Circus Myths" by clicking on the link just to the right, on this page.

Paws Up to Price Chopper!

This afternoon I received a call from Neil Golub, President and CEO of Price Chopper, which is listed in Champlain Valley Fair advertising as the sponsor of the "Nerger Lion and Tiger Show."

Mr. Golub said he was misled by Fair management who told him Price Chopper would be sponsoring a petting zoo. He was "horrified" to learn that Price Chopper's good name and funding had been associated instead with an unsavory circus act.

He'd received a complaint early in the week, even before receiving notice of a planned protest against Price Chopper. And his stores had taken the initiative to withdraw their funding and support of the Nerger's style of "entertainment." Price Chopper, he assured me, is a family owned and operated business that wants to serve the community and would never voluntarily abet any form of animal abuse.

Thanks to Price Chopper's prompt action, the protest against the grocery story on Shelburne Road in Burlington (originally planned for Sunday, August 30) has been cancelled.

Instead of protests, Price Chopper and Mr. Golub should receive expressions of gratitude from everyone who believes that elephants, big cats and other circus animals deserve to live free of brutality and fear.

Lions, Tigers and Whips, Oh My!

The Big Lie of the Big Top returns this year to the Champlain Valley Fair.

Circuses parade lions, tigers, and elephants as family entertainment, but for the animals, there’s a darker side of abuse and neglect.

That’s certainly true for the Nerger Lions and Tigers Show, scheduled daily at the Expo and sponsored by Price Chopper.

Judit and Juergen Nerger, who train the big cats, are employees of the Hawthorn Corporation, which leases exotic species to traveling circuses and shows like the one being promoted in Essex Junction.

Hawthorn is a shadowy entity, so anxious to keep its business secret that it doesn’t even maintain a website. The corporation is officially chartered in Illinois as the “National Congress of Animals.” But a little investigation shows that the “Congress” has accumulated $275,000 in fines from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for violations of the Federal Animal Welfare Act.

The company became infamous in 1994, when a twenty-year-old Hawthorn elephant named Tyke went on the rampage at a performance in Hawaii, crushing her trainer and injuring two other circus workers before embarking on an hour long stampede down the streets of Honolulu. Police finally killed the animal in an 87 bullet fusillade.

An autopsy showed the handler had cocaine and alcohol in his body--and perhaps Tyke did, too. Vodka, up to two quarts a day, is often given to elephants in the Russian State Circus where the Nergers worked for two years in 2000-2001 before bringing their act to the U.S.

Juergen Nerger was in charge of a Hawthorn facility in Illinois in the middle of August, 2008, when the USDA inspected in response to a reported tiger bite. There government veterinarians found seven tigers being held in cages intended only for short-term transport. The law requires that long term enclosures must provide sufficient space for the animals to “make normal postural and social adjustments.” But the animals the vets discovered were in cages just four feet high, with a width of 6'8" and length of 7'3". Two adult tigers, which typically weigh hundreds of pounds each, were stuck in each tiny pen.

Other USDA veterinary reports showed that frozen meat had been left in direct sunlight for over four hours, covered with flies, intended to feed the big cats (April 2009), while another citation two years earlier involved safety. “At the time of the inspection,” according to USDA documents, “the barrier in front of the tigers was one thin rope.” A child or any curious member of the public could have simply slipped under the line and come into direct contact with the tigers. That’s not acceptable—not when over twenty people have been killed in the U.S. and hundreds more injured since 1990 by big cat attacks.

Is the Essex Police Animal Control unit really ready to handle an escaped super predator? And if the Nergers love animals so much, why do they use whips in their training?

If enough people start asking questions like that, Essex Junction just might follow Burlington’s lead and outlaw shows like this altogether.


[If you want to read the U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service report for yourself, the document is online at http://www.aphis.usda.gov/animal_welfare/Inspection_Reports/C%20-%20EXHIBITOR/IL/THE%20HAWTHORN%20CORPORATION%20-%2033-C-0053.pdf]