(Seguin) — The city of Seguin is responding to an animal rights group which accuses the city of welcoming the Carden International Circus to town despite its current rules in its books.
In a letter submitted to Seguin Mayor Donna Dodgen and members of the Seguin City Council, Rachel Mathews, the foundation director of PETA’s captive animal law enforcement, states that “the city has no business greenlighting Carden’s exploitative camel, elephant, and tiger acts, which are clearly prohibited by its own law. PETA is calling on officials to do their jobs and is encouraging everyone to avoid this circus.”
PETA, which stands for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, serves as the largest animals rights group in the world.
The Carden Circus is set to perform with elephants, tigers and camels in Seguin on April 27-28 at the Seguin Events Complex.
In her letter Mathews states that “The Carden Circus transports animals to hundreds of cities, forcing them to perform and give rides under the constant threat of punishment. They (are) live chained in parking lots and arena back rooms, where they have no semblance of a comfortable or happy life. The elephants Carden uses are aging rapidly, and most show signs of arthritis, a painful, incurable disease that is deadly for elephants. In 2017, this circus subjected an Asian elephant named Jenny to a grueling months-long circus tour despite her obvious poor health. She died near the end of the tour, never having received retirement.”
According to PETA, Seguin prohibits the possession and display of any animal not normally born and raised in captivity, including elephants, tigers, and camels and cites Code of Ordinances, City of Seguin, Texas § 14-5. Mathews say circuses are not exempt.
Defending its position in allowing the circus to perform is Seguin Mayor Donna Dodgen. Dodgen says the current ordinance has been “referenced incorrectly” by the animal rights group.
“The ordinance that PETA is actually referencing speaks to harboring of animals and the intent is to prohibit the sale, a sanctuary in your backyard and the keeping of the animals that are listed in the ordinance as a pet and it’s a long list and it goes from alligators to giraffes so there was really no intent as they said in the letter,” said Dodgen.
Dodgen says she has also done the homework to ensure that there hasn’t been an issue with Carden or any other circus that has come to town.
“And just to let you know, I looked back for history wise, this circus since the city has taken over the fairgrounds, this exact circus has been to Seguin four times. Of course, not last year because of the COVID and in 2019, we had another circus here called Sorus Circus and there were no issues noted or reported for either of those circuses in previous years or for the one that is coming at the end of this month — just to let you know that,” said Dodgen.
Now while she defends the city’s current ordinance on animals, she doesn’t believe that it should be the end of the issue. In fact, Dodgen says the city will take its own steps to ensure the health and safety of all animal visitors.
“The other thing that I saw come from this because after I looked at the ordinance and thought about things and talked about it a little bit — you know I love my animals. All my animals are rescue animals. I love them dearly and I don’t think there is a single person who doesn’t love animals in the city and so what I’ve asked to do and what we are going to do is we are going to have our animal service officers visit the circus to look at it, to review and evaluate — to look at how they are feeding their animals, how they bring them in, how they do their daily care set up and dismantling plus look at living conditions and how they are being transported and I know our animal services officers do an incredible job. They are excellent. I have all the confidence in the world with them. If they find anything, they will take the appropriate action and even cite if necessary. So those are a couple of things that we are going to do,” said Dodgen.
Following the personal visit by animal services officers, Dodgen says she also plans to revisit the written rules and regulations.
“Then, we are going to look at our ordinance. We are certainly going to evaluate the current one, the one that we have on the books that they referenced incorrectly and also look at that and review it. Then have animal services go at the end of this month and review and evaluate the current circus and then subsequent ones that come to town. So, those are some things that we are going to do to kind of help offset that and to be aware of what’s happening. So, it was good that it was brought to our attention to see if we need to change some things,” said Dodgen.
Dodgen says the city owes it to everyone to reevaluate things from time to time. After all, she says that’s the only way that folks can stay on top of things and ensure that only best efforts are being put into action.
“When we continue to do things over and over again, it’s interesting when things open our eyes to look at things a little differently and it doesn’t hurt, maybe change something, maybe not — maybe pat ourselves on the back for something that we are doing really good and we weren’t even aware of so it’s not a bad thing to look at it. I don’t like that I feel like that it was the ordinance that had an incredible intent was misrepresented but it’s a good way to look at things and to see do we need to do something and tighten things up? ” said Dodgen.
According to Carden Circus, it “is committed 110 percent to the exceptional care and ethical treatment of all of our animals.” They say they believe in animal-human relationships that are built upon respect, trust, affection and absolutely uncompromising care.” They also confirm that there is “absolutely zero tolerance for verbal or physical abuse or the withholding of food or water from any of our animals.”
Carden Circus officials say they have been entertaining families throughout the country for over 50 years.