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  1. Signatures
    7,241 out of 7,500
    Petitioning
    1. Colorado Renaissance Festival (+ 11 others)
      Petitioning
      close
      • Colorado Renaissance Festival
      • Larkspur Mayor (Sherilyn West)
      • USDA
      • Castle Rock Mayor (Paul Donahue)
      • Colorado State Senator (Mark Scheffel)
      • Colorado State Representative (Carole Murray)
      • Douglas County Public Information Officer (Sgt. Ron Hanavan)
      • Douglas County Director of Public Affairs
      • Larkspur Town Clerk (Matt Krimmer)
      • Larkspur Town
      • President of Colorado Renaissance Festival (Jim Paradise)
      • Great Cats World Park
  2. Created By
    Julie Halvorson
    Westminster, CO
About this Petition Petition Letter Petition Updates

There is a new show at the Colorado Renaissance Festival that is called “Endangered Cat Show”. They claim it is “educational and entertaining” but is the company that provides this “educational entertainment” more focused on the entertainment than the education?  CLICK HERE to see their web site. Not only do they perform at Renaissance Festivals other events include Sportsman/Outdoor Shows, County and State Fairs. These are direct quotes from their site: “ON STAGE! Looking for a way to attract a crowd? The Great Cats World Park Show can come to your event!!” – “Our cats also specialize in stunt action and mock attacks, as well as snarling, leaping, jumping, running, and climbing. If you are looking for specific behaviors, call in advance so the trainers at the Park can prep each individual cat.” I will let that speak for itself when it comes to what I think this companies motivations are. You can educate people without using these animals as stage props and making them perform.

Please help others realize that social responsibility has evolved beyond allowing the abuse of animals for entertainment and these beautiful animals deserve a life of dignity and respect.

Please tell the Colorado Renaissance Festival and the Great Cats World Park to stop using these animals for entertainment.

Ten Fast Facts about Captive Exotic Animals

* Big cats are too dangerous to be owned as pets and paraded around crowds and children with minimal restraints. * Big cats can not be domesticated and will always pose a threat to human beings. * Festivals, fairs, carnivals, circuses and roadside zoo attractions keep big cats in small cages and travel in the back of trailers for miles which is cruel and abusive. * Breeding of big cats should not be allowed because animals bred in captivity can never live safely in the wild.  They are destroyed when the population gets too big for private owners to maintain.

 

The elephant named Paige:

There is an elephant named Paige who is a 37 year old wild born African bush elephant, which has experienced a life of “performing” with Have Trunk Will Travel, then Allen Brothers Circus, and now Perfect Pachyderms and giving rides at the Colorado Renaissance Festival. She is all alone, chained and giving rides all summer! Industries that use captive wild animals, such as the circus, frequently engage in abusive training methods, such as the use of hooks, chains, whips, electric prods, and blunt instruments. Please help these beautiful creatures escape from a life of “entertainment”.

Thank you for your support!

Why People Are Signing
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Please stop using exotic animals as entertainment

Greetings,

I am writing to ask you to stop the “Endangered Cat Show” show at the Colorado Renaissance Festival.

With the introduction this past week of the Big Cats and Public Safety Protection Act, federal legislators are taking a serious interest in trying to prevent another massacre of wild animals like we saw in Ohio. By clamping down on private ownership and trade in big cats, they hope to prevent this from happening anywhere else in the country again. More and more people are realizing that dangerous big cats just don’t belong in fairs, festivals, carnivals, and roadside zoo attractions.

Craig Wagner, the exhibitor of big cats at the Colorado Renaissance Festival, has a long history of taking risks with dangerous animals. He boasts of undergoing 25 hours of major surgery, having 350 stitches, suffering 2000 punctures from bites due to his wild animals. He claims one of his leopards “could kill me in a minute and not feel bad or worry about the consequences at all.” And yet, he displays them at the Renaissance Festival restraining them among guests with only a leash and a chain. He takes risks that could have deadly consequences for Festival guests.

We all saw how life can change in an instant when a domestic dog bit anchorwoman Kyle Dyer during an interview. If this devastation could happen from a domestic animal, what would happen if a big cat on display decided to attack? The USDA felt that Craig Wagner’s exhibit last year at the Renaissance Festival was so dangerous that they came out and cited him for violating safety regulations. And yet, the Festival has decided to continue with this type of exhibition?

Shouldn’t guests expect Renaissance Festival exhibitors to have excellent safety and animal welfare histories in order to be permitted there? Craig Wagner’s criminal history includes jail time and arrests ranging from drugs to domestic assault. He was busted on horrendous animal-cruelty charges in Wisconsin where, ironically, his sometimes fatal neglect and abuse was of endangered cats. His cats have been so starved that they’ve turned to killing and eating each other. In Minnesota, his business partner was mauled and killed by a starving tiger in its enclosure. This was so notorious, it was featured on Animal Planet’s “Fatal Attractions.”

Craig Wagner is based at Great Cats World Park in Oregon. The animals he performs with endure life in small cages as they are transported across the country from venue to venue. Their moments on stage are their only moments of freedom. By permitting this “Endangered Cat Show,” the Festival and guests are endorsing a life that has been proven to be inherently abusive for wild animals.

Exotic animal mismanagement has reached epidemic proportions and I feel your action are only adding to the problem and not the solution. There are ways to educate the public without using animals as stage props and making them perform.

I urge you to Get The Facts: Ten Fast Facts about Captive Exotic Animals
http://www.bornfreeusa.org/facts.php?p=436&more=1

Thank You!

[Your name]

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