Styx & PETA May Break Your Elephant Rides, L.A. County Fair
Baby elephant undergoes abuse by Have Trunk Will Travel trainer. Screengrab from Animal Defenders International footage.
If you need another reason to love the band Styx, we've got one. All six members, apparently all animal rights advocates, sent a letter to James Henwood, President and CEO of the L.A. County Fair Association, urging the cancellation of elephant rides.
Have Trunk Will Travel (HTWT), a notorious animal exhibitor, will provide jaunts on the gentle gray giants at the L.A. County Fair come September. Footage released by Animal Defenders International exposes HTWT trainers shocking elephants with electric prods and striking them with sharp metal-tipped bullhooks. The animals, including a baby, can be seen and heard reacting to the torture, screaming in pain.
Styx's nudge, on behalf of PETA, occurs just a few weeks before the band is slated to perform at the fair on September 25.
"Parents and children who attend the fair would be horrified to learn, just as we were, that the fair is supporting cruelty to animals by hosting these elephant rides …," writes the group. "It's hard to watch the video, but it shows that the only way to train a 10,000-pound wild-caught animal to obey a human is through years of beatings and intimidation."
PETA will protest the fair's opening day on September 3 if the rides are not cancelled. The group relentlessly protested opening night's of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey's new "Fully Charged" show featuring tortured elephants this summer in both Anaheim and Los Angeles.
