Elephant Parade Kicks Off Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in DC
Tonight elephants will parade from Capitol Hill to the Verizon Center, closing area streets along the way.
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The annual DC Pachyderm Parade will bring elephants from the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus to the streets of DC tonight starting at 8 p.m.
This year's show, DRAGONS, is an Asian-inspired performance visiting the Verizon Center in DC March 21-24. DRAGONS performers and clowns will accompany the elephants on their grand entrance in DC.
Street closures will begin around 7:30 p.m. and roads should reopen by 10 p.m. as the elephants make their way from Capitol Hill to the Verizon Center downtown.
The route is as follows:
•North on South Capitol Street to Washington Avenue, SE
•Northwest on Washington Avenue to Independence Avenue, SE
•West on Independence Avenue to 3rd Street, SE
•North on 3rd Street to G Street, NW
•West on G Street, NW to the loading dock at the Verizon Center where they will disband.
You can follow the elephant's progress on Twitter @DCElephantWalk. And you can purchase tickets to the circus here.
Cj Ellie
9:36 am on Tuesday, March 19, 2013
If your family loves elephants the last place you would take your children is to a Ringling Parade or Show. Dame Daphne Sheldrick, one of the most recognized and respected elephant experts internationally, states that the training of performing circus elephants is brutal in the extreme, aimed at breaking the spirit of the animal” and that the “stereotypic behavior of circus or zoo elephants indicates psychosis”. “It is not natural for an Elephant to have to stand on a stool, or on its head, and perform unnatural acts for the so-called entertainment of humans, added to which there should be nothing entertaining in seeing an unfortunate captive,deprived of its family and friends, who has been turned semi mad by being
forced to endure cruelty and deprivation”.
C
10:34 am on Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Animal Cruelty is not Educational, Entertaining or Conservation.
D
12:43 pm on Tuesday, March 19, 2013
If the elephants didn't like it don't you think they would eat their trainers? Animals are entertainment, and make tasty meals.