Animal Activists Plan Two Anti-Circus Demonstrations In Danbury

Back in early April, protesters were out in full force during the run of the Garden Brothers Circus at the Danbury Ice Arena. Now, more anti-animal circus protests are planned for Danbury this summer.

In a move to get the Danbury City Council to pass a city wide ban on animal circuses, protesters have scheduled two more demonstrations scheduled for this summer.

According to CT Post, the first demonstration would be on July 20th at Danbury Library Plaza on Main Street from 2 to 5 p.m. The second scheduled demonstration would be at Danbury City Hall prior to the Danbury City Council meeting on August 6th.

Reesa St. George, who is a Danbury resident, has been working trying to get a city wide ban since back in March, and told newstimes.com why she's supporting the upcoming protests:

Cruelty to animals does not provide wholesome family entertainment, nor does it provide any educational content whatsoever. It is time to stop exposing Danbury’s children to animal abuse and the clear and present danger of physical harm posed by these performances.

It is long past due to stop promoting the repugnant notion that sentient and sensitive animals exist only for our exploitation and profit, and should be deprived of freedom, dignity and fulfillment of their most basic needs.

We asked City Council President Joe Cavo, who's been in contact with anti animal circus protesters, about the stand that the City Council is taking on this issue. Here's what he had to say:

At this time, polling the city council members, both Democrats and Republicans, there doesn't seem to be a burning interest to take up legislation to ban circuses in Danbury.

We would rather see the organization planning these demonstrations take it to the state level and have the circuses banned state wide instead of going to towns one by one. Even if we passed the legislation, what's to stop Bethel, or New Milford, or any other town from having the circus set up there?

As far as Danbury is concerned, the two venues that used to do circuses don't do them anymore, so they really need to go focus on the state legislators and have them take up the possibility of a ban throughout the entire state.

Jill Alibrandi of Redding and Lisa Leah Haut of Bridgeport are organizing the upcoming demonstrations in Danbury, and told newstimes.com why their focused on towns like Danbury to hold these demonstrations:

We prioritize our efforts on the cities with the most history of and potential for future bookings — and Danbury is one, Hartford is also, but we can only focus on one city at a time.

If the city were to ban animal circuses, it would be only the third city in the state to do so. Right now both Bridgeport and Stamford have bans in place.

The Danbury Ice Arena, which has now banned circuses after the April performances of the the Garden Brothers Circus, and Western Connecticut State University, who issued a ban back in 2001, are the two local venues that have stopped booking circuses.