TNT REALITY SHOW INFORMATION

[Stephanie Durecko]

I WANTED TO MAKE A SEPERATE DISCUSSION SPECIFICALLY FOR THIS TOPIC...BECAUSE IT NEEDS TO BE WATCHED AND ADDRESSED SO THIS DOES NOT HAPPEN

[Stephanie Durecko]

PASTED FROM PREVIOUS DISCUSSION GROUP

Here is an easy and worthwhile campaign for you to participate in, from BornFree.org. The cable station Turner Network Television (TNT) announced plans to air a reality show featuring Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. The show will send TNT’s cameras inside the Ringling train as it travels from city to city, iso it clearly will amount to a lengthy Ringling commercial. This shows how cynical and to what lengths Feld Entertainment will go, in its campaign to reimagine it's image, in the face of continuing pressure from animal welfare organizations. This is the same sort of tie-in that Feld worked on with Denny's, just altered a bit for the forum. We are making headway, and this is an example of how Feld is fighting back. I will let TNT executives know that I will take efforts to wipe TNT out of my viewing schedule permanently owing to my disapproval over this show.

http://www.api4animals.org/actionalerts.php?p=1553&more=1&c...

So lets contact TNT president Steve Koonin, also producers Mark Wolper and Al Hassas, and urge them to abandon plans to air the Ringling reality show. We can let them know we are incredibly dismayed to hear of this business decision which will OBVIOUSLY keep the actual reality of life for circus animals hidden from public view.

We can remind them that after learning of the abuse inherent in animal circuses, major corporations such as Denny's, Lukoil, General Mills, Burger King, Liz Claiborne, MasterCard, Visa, and Sears, Roebuck & Co. ended their promotions of circuses like Ringling Bros. Perhaps we can determine proposed sponsors in advance. If this show airs, I will endeavor to keep records of the sponsors, and let them know that this will geometrically expand, so that their reputations and economic metrics will be damaged.

Steve Koonin, President Turner Entertainment Networks
1050 Techwood Dr.
Atlanta, GA 30318
404-827-3933
404-575-5294 fax
[e-mail] (his assistant)

Mark Wolper, President The Wolper Organization
4000 Warner Blvd., Bldg. 14, Room 200
Burbank, CA 91522-0001
818-954-1421
818-954-1593 fax
[e-mail] (his assistant)

Al Hassas, Executive Producer Collective Media
9100 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 700
West Beverly Hills, CA 90212
310-888-1522
310-888-1555 fax
[e-mail]
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Permalink Reply by Stephanie on March 25, 2008 at 12:48pm
Delete I am with you and will be sending my letters out....how underhanded, how sinister. These guys are really going the extra length to let the public think everything is great.
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Permalink Reply by Stephanie on March 28, 2008 at 8:47am
Delete For many children, going to the circus and seeing all the tricks the animals can do is something that is looked forward to all year, but behind the scenes, the animals, treatment does not show the same kind of fun and joy. Elephants are a big attraction for crowds of people in the United States. The treatment of these animals is the only way to maximize their life expectancy. This is very important because elephants are disappearing with their habitats and should be protected against extinction. Putting them in unnatural climates and habitats like at the circus, or the animals that are kept at different locations for movies, does not provide an adequate lifestyle for these majestic creatures. Along with trying to inform our society of the animals, we are shortening their lives in the process. The United States needs to open more sanctuaries for these large creatures and give them room to roam. Instead of having the animals do tricks in the circus, they should get the most natural atmosphere, which sanctuaries could provide.

Ever been to the circus to see the elephants do trick, perhaps you saw one stand on their heads? This trick is famous because the mammal is so large and is not often seen in nature here in the United States. Elephants can weigh up to eight thousand pounds and should not be standing on their heads. They do not know or perform most of their tricks in the wild, they must be taught, and the methods of teaching do not always follow animal rights laws of that state, town, or city. To completely avoid this on going debate of right or wrong, certain largely populated areas have completely banned circuses, rodeos, and other animal acts. Those place include Stamford, Connecticut; Hollywood; Florida; Boulder, Colorado; Pasadena, California; and, soon to be, Denver Colorado. (Vickroy, 2)

The circus coming to a city close-by may not be as innocent and cheerful as is led to believe by the animal keepers themselves. To look after the elephants when the owners or keepers are not, there are a few agencies that respond to them fairly quickly. The Animal and Plant Health Inspections Service (APHIS) is apart of the United States Department of Agriculture that provides current health and care for all animals and plants. There are many recent findings of circuses not following the proper health requirements for elephants. An animal should be treated like an animal, and not physically or mental abused, almost the same as attending to a child. “On March 17th, 2004 APHIS inspectors, for the first time in history of the agency, ordered removal of an entire heard of circus elephants from an Illinois company, Hawthorn Corporation. The John F. Cuneo, the owner of Hawthorn Corporation, openly admitted to nineteen charges against the Animal Welfare Act, law effective 1966 to ensure animals have the right to good living. One of the nineteen charges includes “failing to handle elephants in a manner that did not cause physical harm, behavioral stress, and trauma.” The company then was charged with a fine of $200,000.(Mott, 3)

The famous “Ringling Brothers Circus” was in trouble in the year 2000 for mistreatment of their Asian elephants. The Ringling Brothers, a very well-known circus in the United States, was caught and charged with several accounts of animal abuse, mental and physical. The handlers inflicted horrifying methods of training including beatings with bull hooks, constant chaining, and forcibly taking baby elephants away from their mothers. Elephants began to spark an interest in the eyes of naturalists when the child‘s movie, Dumbo , came out. A story of elephants being taken away from their mothers and locked down at all times. The Discovery channel show camera crews get targeted and almost stampeded due to the fact they were a little too close to the baby elephant. This is because the mothers and the babies get separated very quickly and these animals are naturally aggressive when it comes to their children.

[Stephanie Durecko]

POSTED FROM PREVIOUS DISCUSSIONS

Reply by Vladimir on March 30, 2008 at 8:51pm

Delete Stephanie has, with her typical relentlessness, pressed me to write my letter to TNT far sooner than I would have otherwise, and I thank her for the prodding! Stephanie invited all to cannibalize talking points from her page, and I will post the text of my letter here, for anyone to carve up and use as they see fit. This show, MUST be stopped, and we can generate nearly 30 letters within this group alone!

March 28, 2008

Mr. Steve Koonin, President
Turner Entertainment Networks
1050 Techwood Drive
Atlanta, GA 30318

RE: Proposed “Reality” Show Featuring Ringling Bros. Circus

Dear Mr. Koonin,

I am writing to let you know how disturbed I am to learn of TNT’s plan to produce and air a “reality” show focused on Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus (henceforth: RB). I am not clear as to why TNT would risk the good reputation of the network (and, by extension: its subsidiary/affiliate networks and organizations) by producing and airing a program which surely should be realized as an effort by Feld Entertainment (Ringling’s parent company) to burnish the public image of RB, which has been battered by exposure of its grotesque mistreatment and death of animals featured in its acts.

Indeed, the timing of this program coincides with Feld defending itself in a federal lawsuit brought by the Humane Society of the US, the ASPCA, and Born Free/The Animal Protection Institute pursuant to The Endangered Species Act: challenging abuse of Asian elephants by RB. Airing this program would surely discredit the reputation of TNT as fronting a “propaganda” effort on behalf of defendant Feld during the course of this litigation, and essentially acting as a sponsor to help promote its shows.

Mr. Koonin, a “reality” show focused on the RB Circus should endeavor to enfold all aspects of the true reality of the circus, including it's inhumane of wild animals that are forced to “perform.” It is important for the American public to understand the full spectrum of the circus, not just what Feld currently seeks to present to the public. Feld’s animal-care history is riddled with violation of state and federal humane codes, USDA violations, penalties, and warnings: including innumerable violations of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA), federal legislation which provides for the barest minimum standards of animal care.

In less than two years, two baby elephants died, a caged tiger was shot to death, a horse that was used in the circus despite a chronic medical condition died, and a wild-caught sea lion was found dead in her transport container. Within the allegations of the lawsuit, veteran RB employees have signed affidavits detailing vicious and systematic abuse of its animal “performers,” most particularly, during brutal “training” sessions in which wild animals are forced to “learn” unnatural tricks for shows, through negative reinforcement punishment utilizing barbaric tools and intimidation techniques. Among the affidavits are those describing the death of a young lion from heat prostration on a RB train, (and how this negligence was covered up by evidence tampering and interfering with the USDA investigation); and almost unimaginably sadistic “training” and punishment sessions wherein elephants were beaten over intense and lengthy periods with hooked metal clubs called “bullhooks”.

Mr. Koonin, the USDA has documented many citations for deficiencies in RB’s animal care ranging from the deprivation of clean water, fresh and proper food, clean living quarters and even the most basic, shelter from the weather. Even these minimal requirements are noted as not being met by RB. But RB operates under a shroud of concealment, denying access to training sessions and withholding even the most basic information concerning its elephants’ names and premature deaths of its adult elephants. Because RB has also refused to cooperate with government investigations into mistreatment, the USDA resorted to issuing a subpoena

[Vladimir]

for documents as required by federal law.

So I must ask if you have questioned whether this proposed program, which will bear the good name of TNT, will be showing wild animals that spend 21 hours a day, caged or chained, enduring unrelenting, extreme conditions, without food or water, performing or dying during 25,000 yearly miles of transport: for 11 months of the year? Will this TNT program show the forceful use of bullhooks used to “train, control and discipline” elephants? Will it show elephants with chronic and debilitating foot conditions still forced to perform? Will this TNT program show horses beaten and whipped on a daily basis? Will this TNT program show the forcible removal of baby elephants from their mothers at the Ringling Brothers "Center for Elephant Conservation", where it breeds elephants for use in their circus? Will this TNT program discuss that its wild animals perform “tricks” because they are afraid not to? Will this TNT program show RB executives and employees evidence tampering and interfering with USDA cruelty investigations? All of these issues are part of the “reality” that forms the whole of RB: and if not featured, will render this TNT program deliberately false and misleading.

Mr. Koonin, RB trainers use bullhooks, whips, sticks, electric prods, and other tools that intentionally cause pain and injury in order to force animals to perform. You can view actual footage of RB’s elephant trainer, (known as “Captain Hook,” owing to his reputation as a master punisher utilizing the “bullhook”), educating employees on how to inflict pain as he mercilessly beats an elephant during training sessions (“Make ‘em scream!”: then you know they feel it), @ http://www.petatv.com/tvpopup/Prefs.asp?video=carson_barnes .

Dr. Desmond Morris, (Anthropologist and Animal Behaviorist) has written that: “The idea that it is funny to see wild animals coerced into acting like clumsy humans, or thrilling to see powerful beasts reduced to cringing cowards by a whip-cracking trainer is primitive and medieval. It stems from the old idea that we are superior to other species and have the right to hold dominion over them.” Public support for ignoring these realties of the RB circus is waning, and I believe that this proposed TNT program will be seen by the public and press as little more than a Feld public relations initiative, with TNT being a partner, and the network and its parent company tarnished as a result. There are nine states with counties and twelve other countries that have banned this circus within their borders. You should know that in addition to the growing public awareness and condemnation, former commercial partners disassociated themselves and ended RB promotions, including: Dennys, Lukoil, General Mills, Burger King, Liz Claiborne, Mastercard, Visa and Sear & Roebuck. I believe you should expect an impact or targeted boycotting of corporate sponsors who link themselves to this proposed TNT program.

Mr. Koonin, this lengthy letter represents the barest, most spare argument I can make against this proposed TNT program. I have condensed my points as aggressively as I can. If this program airs, it will stain the reputation of TNT and its subsidiaries/affiliates for many years and brand TNT as being used by Feld Entertainment to disseminate propaganda and aid its defense in a federal lawsuit. Rather, I am hoping that you will use the good name of your office to protect yourself and the good name of your network: and instead reap the beneficial publicity that will follow when you cancel this proposed TNT program.

With my regards,

It may be easier to do in one sweep: YOU CAN COPY THE TEXT IN ITS ENTIRETY FROM THE SEPARATE DISCUSSION, AND ALTER TO YOUR LIKING. TNT NEEDS TO RECEIVE WRITTEN LETTERS ON THIS IMPORTANT TOPIC!
Focus Letter Writing Campaign Against Proposed TNT Ringling Bros. "Reality" Show
Clic

[Stephanie Durecko]

CURRENT NEWS ON TNT "REALITY" SHOW

DEVELOPMENT HISTORY:
3/3/08
STATUS:
currently in development (2008-2009 season)
DEVELOPMENT STAGE:
unspecified
DESCRIPTION:
(from TNT's press release) This unscripted series invites viewers to travel on the mile-long train of the famous Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, the town without a zip code. Viewers will go behind the scenes of the legendary circus and enjoy the stories of people who have captivated the world. THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH comes to TNT from Earth Angel Productions, with Mark Wolper, Kenneth Feld, Nicole Feld, Al Hassas and Reza Izad serving as executive producers.
CREW INFORMATION:
· Al Hassas as EP
· Kenneth Feld as EP
· Mark Wolper as EP
· Nicole Feld as EP
· Reza Izad as EP

GENRE(S):
· reality

STUDIO INFORMATION:
· Earth Angel Productions
· Wolper Organization, The

[Stephanie Durecko]

LOG ONTO TNT.COM......POST YOUR DEMAND TO STOP PRODUCTION, ALSO WRITE DIRECTLY TO CORPORATION, ETC.

[Stephanie Durecko]

Here is another way to protest TNT from airing their "reality" show.
Turner Broadcast owns several stations, including: CNN (didnt know), TBS, TCM< Boomerrang, Cartoon Network and Gametap.
I have been on TNT's website: http://www.tnt.tv
and I have found the shows that are their originals: The Closer, Saving Grace, Without a Trace, My Boys, Las Vegas and this summer The Company (Chris O'Donnell, Michael Keaton and Alfred Molina).......I believe these actors need to know what is going on with the newtork they work for and the public outrage and boycotting of their shows and the station they work for.
I think it's a worthwhile idea that I think needs to be persued. So, I am going to do some research and find addresses or ways to contact the actors and will post as soon as I can. If anyone has any information for me relevant to this...please let me know. Thanks to all.

[Stephanie Durecko]

Please sign this petition...this cause is so important...we can not allow TNT to air this show, it will be death and cruelty for so many WILD animals
ALSO PLEASE WRITE TO TNT PRODUCERS AND PRESIDENT....URGE RESPONSES NEEDED

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/787638397

An upcoming TV series, "Greatest Show on Earth", promises a "behind-the-scenes" look at the legendary Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. But the real story is that Circus staff regularly abuse and torment performing elephants with bull hooks, chains and other devices.


The abuse of Ringling Bros. circus elephants -- well documented by animal welfare organizations, state humane agencies, and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspectors -- violates both the federal Endangered Species Act and the Animal Welfare Act, which prohibit the abuse of endangered animals used in entertainment.

Many have witnessed routine violent abuse and cruelty toward the elephants, including frequently hitting the elephants with bull hooks, rubbing dirt into sores of elephants to conceal their wounds, and routinely chaining the elephants on concrete or in cramped rail cars for many hours of every day and night.

This kind of cruelty is not entertainment -- contact TNT and urge them to cancel the "Greatest Show on Earth" series.

Dear Mr. Koonin,

The upcoming series, "Greatest Show on Earth", promises a "behind-the-scenes" look at the legendary Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. But the real story is that Circus staff regularly abuse and torment performing elephants with bull hooks, chains and other devices.

The abuse of Ringling Bros. circus elephants -- well documented by animal welfare organizations, state humane agencies, and U. S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspectors -- violates both the federal Endangered Species Act and the Animal Welfare Act, which prohibit the abuse of endangered animals used in entertainment.

Many have witnessed routine violent abuse and cruelty toward the elephants, including frequently hitting the elephants with bull hooks, rubbing dirt into sores of elephants to conceal their wounds and routinely chaining the elephants on concrete or in cramped rail cars for many hours of every day and night.

[Your Comment]

This kind of cruelty is not entertainment and goes against any measure of human decency. Please cancel "The Greatest Show on Earth".

[Your Name]
[Your Address]

[Val]

I signed this petition, and other's like it. I will never, never, EVER go to a circus, I went to one when I was much younger, ignorant and naive, and was absolutely horrified at what I saw, common sense tells you that these animals should not be subjected to such cruelty. I vowed then never to attend one again. Since then, I have learned about more details of the horrors of what goes on behind the scenes, (although I am so sensitive I have to limit what I learn, breaks my heart too much, but I know enough how WRONG it is) and I oppose circuses and all they stand for with all my being. Thank you for posting the petition, and addressing this topic.
Val

[Vladimir]

Valerie, all you have to ask, as a response, to anyone who is skeptical of your opinions about the "facts" of animal acts in circuses, is to refer to the training of elephant performers. If the ankus (bullhook) is is just a "guiding tool" (as trainers proclaim!), if it is humane, and not designed to hurt and injure, then, "WHAT IS THE HOOK FOR?"

I have never gotten a sensible answer to this question. It tends to, often embarrassingly, halt the debate rather abruptly...

[Vladimir]

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/787638397

Site to sign the ASPCA's petition regarding this grotesque show.

[Stephanie Durecko]

Thanks...I am going to post to my friends. This must be stoppped, I mean I cant imagine what they would show the public to make them secure in thinking everything is fine and animal activists are such loonies, this will surely try to drive that point across.

[Stephanie Durecko]

FROM AN ARTICLE WRITTEN BY DUNCAN STRAUSS

I read with great interest -- and greater horror -- that one component of TNT's new plan to expand the network's slate of original programming is an unscripted series set aboard the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus train that transports the performers and animals from show to show.

That sound you're hearing may be the bottom of the barrel scraping -- or it could be the moaning of an elephant being abused.

Sure, the unscripted-series barrel has been dredged ever deeper over the years, so that, now, darn near anything constitutes a reality show. If you're intrigued by, say, who Chef Ramsay will next scream at, or which young lady will be selected to rock Bret Michaels' world, hey, Godspeed.

Similarly, I certainly can't keep you from watching this forthcoming TNT program about Ringling entitled, predictably enough, The Greatest Show On Earth. And I'm mindful that criticizing any sort of work--particularly if fueled by moral outrage -- before seeing, reading, hearing that work is the province of the lunkhead.

But I don't really seek to criticize this TNT series, and my outrage toward Ringling isn't particularly elevated after hearing about the show -- it's always pretty damn high.

In answer to the question that must've popped up right about now -- who the hell is this guy? -- I'm a father, a passionate animal lover, and host of "Talking Animals," a radio program about animals I launched in 2003 on KUCI in Irvine, CA and now airs on WMNF, an NPR station in Tampa, FL.

So, here are some defining Ringling Bros. traits that, even allowing for the often-altered reality of reality show, may lend this new TNT series an undercurrent of darkness.

Ringling has a long record of animal abuse, most notoriously toward its elephants, which spend most of their time shackled in chains or squeezed into boxcars. Aboard the circus train - -center stage of the new series, remember -- boxcars are often cramped, poorly ventilated, and the elephants stand for long stretches chained in their own waste.

Their training is fear-driven, revolving around punishing and hurting the animals. The main weapon of education is the bull hook, or ankus -- picture a heavy, sharp fireplace poker -- and the trainers hit the elephants, often repeatedly, with the bull hook in various parts of their body, so that they comply, so they "learn." These scenes should make for some terrific television

If you simply find it impossible to believe what I'm saying about Ringling's routine animal abuse, no offense taken. It is almost too horrific to believe.

But a few minutes of online research -- start by Googling such innocuous words as "circus" and "animals" - -will yield a torrent of verifying results, documents, references to lawsuits against Ringling for their mistreatment of the elephants (including numerous former employees serving as whistleblowers) and spools of footage, undercover and otherwise. Regarding footage, I'd be remiss if I didn't cite the award-winning piece on Ringling and its abuse of Asian elephants by veteran television journalist and frequent Huffington Post contributor Leslie Griffith, who has won nine local Emmys and two Edward R. Murrow Awards.

I guess I'm also curious about how the new series will present the information that Ringling owner Kenneth Feld has known for more than a decade that many of its elephants have M-tuberculosis -- the same kind of tuberculosis carried by and transmitted to humans -- and that these elephants are allowed to tour (hey, more fascinating stories aboard the train) and to perform.

"The show must go on" adage takes on a complex new dimension when the show in question is posing a public health threat of, well, elephantine proportions.

Oh, sure, Feld and his lieutenants may tell you, on camera or otherwise, that elephants with TB are pulled from the show -- from the train -- and quarantined. The problem is that one can't accurately diagnose an elephant with TB while he or she is alive -- so-called "trunk washings" are imprecise, and, as you might imagine, it's a little impractical to give a chest x-ray to an elephant.

Perhaps you're thinking that this TB information, too, seems improbable. But Feld and his team are brilliant at marketing, and part of their genius is the deft way they get into bed with media outlets--one upshot is that you almost never see tough, much less investigative, reporting on Ringling.

Again, it will take you mere minutes of research to verify the TB situation, and once more I refer you to the work of Leslie Griffith, the journalist I think has done the best reporting on Ringling in recent years: This written piece includes e-mails and memos by veterinarians and USDA investigators expressing concern over TB in Ringling elephants.

Gosh, endemic animal abuse and exposing audiences to TB seem to amount to blights on Ringling's carefully-cultivated image as family entertainment. But I hope I don't seem too cynical if I predict these elements may not get tremendous airplay on the TNT series.

Perhaps they'll get their due attention in another TV project or documentary film on Ringling -- may I suggest a working title of "The Sickest Show On Earth"