VIA DIRECT ACTION EVERYWHERE
An activist identified as Sydney Sager disrupted the Moolah Shrine Circus in St. Charles on Saturday.
The Moolah Shriners Circus in St. Louis has gone elephant-free — but that hasn't stopped the protests.
Saturday's circus performance at the Family Arena was disrupted by an activist who jumped from her seat onto the stage and repeatedly yelled "drop all animal acts." She managed to keep yelling it even while security physically pushed her out of the ring, only stopping when a uniformed guard forced her down, sat on her and cuffed her. She was then taken away in handcuffs.
Video of the disruption captures the entire interaction:
The group Direct Action Everywhere says it was behind the disruption, and identified the protester as Sydney Sager. Sasha Zemmel, an organizer with the group's St. Louis chapter, says Sager was cited with trespassing and released a few hours later.
Zemmel says the activists were happy to see the circus drop its use of elephant performers, which followed a targeted, months-long campaign (and a high-profile incident that saw two activists roughly detained at a Shriners' meeting last December).
But she noted that this year's show still includes camels, zebras, and ponies, and the circus they come from has "a long list of violations ranging from emaciated animals to terrorizing exotic animals with violent training."
Beyond that, Direct Action Everywhere wants to see the Moolah Shriners commit to no more animal performers, period.
“Captivity is not a place where wild animals thrive,” Zemmel said in a prepared statement. “These animals are taken or bred out of their natural habitats, they’re forced to perform tricks at the hands of their abusers, and they often live less than half their natural lifespans. The fact that the Shriners simply replaced one species of animal with another shows that they’re not committed to shifting with society, but rather looking for another way to do the wrong thing.”
Robby Dirkers, the Moolah Shrine potentate, told the Post-Dispatch in a story published last week that it wasn't protests that caused the Shriners to drop elephant performers. Instead, the elephants it had long used, which are part of an Oklahoma-based circus, seemed too old for another year of performances.
“People did like seeing them,” he told the daily. “It leaves a hole in our heart not to have them.”
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