Greetings:

We are asking Festival in the Park to reconsider plans to allow festival goers to ride camels and ponies.  The use of exotic and wild animals for entertainment purposes is both cruel and dangerous.  Just last week, a camel being used for rides at a Shrine Circus in Pittsburgh began bucking and dragging its riders across the arena, and six children and one adult were injured.  

Animals kept in captivity for entertainment purposes are held under stressful, unnatural, and often abusive conditions which can result in unpredictable behaviors.  Additionally, animals used for rides and in petting zoos can carry a wide variety of potential deadly zoonotic diseases that can be transmitted to humans. 

Exotic animals are not ours to use for entertainment.  Allowing small children to ride these wild animals poses a significant public safety threat.  It is not unlikely that these animals, being forced to give rides for hours on end in a loud, chaotic festival setting, might react in an unpredictable fashion, casing injury to riders and/or festival-goers. Camels are by nature shy and skittish, and the stress of this unnatural setting can be extremely distressing to them. 

Additionally, animals used for entertainment in traveling exhibits are subjected to the stress of transport, disorienting environments and mishandling, and are often leased from disreputable outfits that supply wild animals for such purposes.  Many have numerous violations under the federal Animal Welfare Act.  One such organization, Hoosier Camel Encounter, has been known to whip camels' feet until they bleed and punch and kick the animals.  Unfortunately, this type of behavior is more common than not with animals enslaved for entertainment.  These agitated animals, kept in shackles when not being used for rides, pose a real threat to public safety.  Placing them in an unnatural setting and forcing them to give rides under duress, is likely to elicit unwanted, violent reactions on the part of the animals.

We ask Festival in the Park to immediately cease allowing members of the public to ride camels and ponies.