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If it’s Monday it must be Wilkes-Barre and time for the circus at the 109th Field Artillery Armory.
The Royal Hanneford Circus wrapped up its show in Pittsburgh this past weekend and rolled into town for the next stop on its tour.
It will take center ring for the 66th annual Shrine Circus at the armory for a stretch that runs today through Saturday.
The show features a number of animal acts. Elephants, white Bengal tigers , bears and camels will perform. Also on the bill are high-wire performer and clowns.
But the applause and cheers from the spectators won’t be the only sounds.
Protesters plan to be heard outside the armory prior to the first show at 1:30 p.m.
From noon to 1 p.m. members of the animal rights organization, Voice of the Animals, will be on the sidewalk near Market Street and Second Avenue.
“We really don’t need animals in circuses,” said Silvie Pomicter, the group’s president.
2010 incident
Pomicter, of Lackawanna County, has expressed her opinion at previous circuses and pointed to the April 9, 2010 death of an elephant handler at the armory.
The elephant named Dumbo accidentally caused the fatal injuries to Andrew Anderton, according to authorities. Anderton, 48, of Florida, was reportedly attempting to fix electrical wires that were sparking near the rear of the armory where the elephant was located.
The female African elephant has been renamed Jamba and has been living at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs, Colorado, since 2011, according to Pomicter.
She said the public is beginning to side with activists like her that wild animals should be in the wild and not used for to perform “silly tricks” to entertain people.
“I believe they have souls,” Pomicter said of animals.
For a long time people never thought that wild animals had the same feelings as pet dogs and cats, she said, adding that a social movement is growing around animal rights.
She said the recent decision by Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey to retire their circus elephants by 2018 is a good step, but the animals should be placed in sanctuaries instead of the circus’ conservation center in Florida, where Pomicter said she suspected they would be used for breeding.
“What I’m doing is just a small part of what millions of people are doing around the world,” Pomicter said.
Lisa Walker of Families Against Cruelty Together shared Pomicter’s concerns and the Clarks Summit woman said she would attempt to join the protest. The animal rights activist said she lost her collection of paperwork, photos and other documents in a house fire last month.
“We focus on all animals and specifically circus animals and protecting children from animals that go crazy in circuses,” she said Sunday.
Shriners respond
Scott Thomas, potentate of the Irem Shrine Center that holds the circus as a major fundraiser, has heard the criticism before.
“I am a third generation shiner,” Thomas said. He started attending the the circus as a child with his father in 1965.
“I have never seen anything negative toward any animal in all these years. I have seen tiger cubs born at our circus. I have seen bear cubs,” he said.
Thomas noted the longevity of the circus says something about the show.
“In order for us to be able to do this for 66 consecutive years, obviously we have the support of the public,” he said.
This year, 4,000 school students from as far away as Honesdale and Selinsgrove will see the show, he said. “A lot of these kids are never going to have the opportunity to see an exotic animal except in a circus,” he said.