Online Petition Aims to Stop Elephants at Durham Fair

An online petition launched Thursday on the website change.org aims to stop the Durham Fair Association from bringing elephants to this year's fair.

The petition, titled "The Durham Fair Association: Cancel the Elephant Encounter Show," was created by local resident Rachel Mann and calls on fair officials to cancel a scheduled appearance by Elephant Encounter, an attraction that bills itself as both educational and family friendly.

"The Durham Fair Association in Durham, Connecticut is supporting the captivity, mistreatment and exploitation of elephants for entertainment by hosting the Elephant Encounter show at the 2013 fair in September," the petition reads.

The petition which can be found here has been signed by over 700 people.

Earlier this week, a post announcing the performance on the fair's Facebook page garnered upwards of 300 comments, most of them critical towards the fair's decision to include the act in what is known as Connecticut's largest agricultural fair.

The post and comments were removed from the fair's Facebook page on Thursday.

However, a similar post promoting the event on the Durham-Middlefield Patch Facebook page generated similar criticism. 

"I'm appalled at the Fair Association's decision to allow this "act" to come to town. Last time I checked, elephants didn't do tricks for our entertainment when in the wild," said Jen Kinzel. "This is not about animal conservation in any way, shape or form, no matter how this family spins it. What's even more sickening is that the Fair's is offering "sponsorship opportunities" to the tune of $1,500 for this atrocity."

Elisabeth Anne Brown said, "Shame on the Durham Fair Association. We will be boycotting the Fair this year."

The petition briefly details the show's purported mistreatment of the animals by owner Bill Morris.

"Morris... was videotaped hitting the Asian elephant, Cora, with a bullhook in 2003. In addition, Morris has failed to meet minimal federal standards for the care of animals used in exhibition as established in the Animal Welfare Act (AWA)," the petition reads.

"The African elephant and Asian elephant in the Elephant Encounter show were forcibly removed from their families many years ago and have been forced to perform these tricks all their lives," it continues.

On Thursday evening, fair officials released the following statement:

"In the beginning of the year, the Association sent out a survey to our members and solicited ideas for our Fair this year. Through this process, we received an overwhelming response to our survey. One of the items of choice was to invite Elephants to our Fair this year. The consideration of having this act was not an arbitrary decision but rather from direct input from our members.

"Our Entertainment Department has worked for years with a very reputable agency which understands both the reputation of our Fair as well as its culture. Our committees put a great deal of work and research into the selection of our Fair entertainment. Prior to each act’s selection our committee does the necessary research (in this case from similar Fairs of our size and caliber) to determine the popularity as well as educational benefit to our Fair.

We also mandate the required permits and evidence of applicable regulatory reviews necessary to demonstrate proper care of the animals. Without such documents, The DFA would not allow ANY animal. The DFA will always be dedicated to the promotion of agriculture and the protection of animals. Married with that notion is the ability to entertain and educate our fairgoers on a variety of areas not generally associated with common agricultural activities.

"Additionally we have been in contact with the owners of these animals and are convinced that they regard these animals as we regard our own pets. Again, our intent here was purely for the educational aspects of having this rare experience of witnessing these awesome animals in a controlled environment."