Courtney Brothers Circus Protest Day 4

July 9^th marks the final day of the string of protests that commenced on July 6^th , these protests were set up in order to inform the public on the mistreatment of animals that the Courtney Brothers Circus houses. The protest commenced at 19:00 on Liam Mellows Avenue across the road from where the Courtney Brothers Circus had set up their tents for their show. There was a significant increase in the number of people who attended the protest and participated in the protest alongside the other members who stood in the allocated area and held up their banners. There were approximately sixteen people attending the protest. Upon my arrival to the protest, a member of the Courtney Brothers Circus was standing amongst the other protesters trying to instil discomfort with his presence, remaining silent while he looked at the protesters along with periodically checking his phone. The protest went on as normal with people driving by and occasionally giving their support through beeps from their cars. It should be noted that some people even gave multiple beeps, and the protesters acknowledged these acts of encouragement.

Courtney Brothers Circus member hanging around near the group of protesters

Protesters waving at a passing vehicle as the driver beeps at them to show support

As time went on, the circus workers commenced what can be seen as a wave of intimidation against the Protesters which started off as mild attempts at intimidating the protesters, but as time passed, the workers constantly harassed the group of protesters. The onset of the intimidation came in the form of a Counter Protest as a group of people who worked at the Courtney Brothers Circus grabbed a number of banners that represented the circus, and ran across the road to join the protesters, the banners for the circus clashing with the banners that were emphasizing the message that the protesters were trying to broadcast. This was not a very strong attempt at intimidation for the circus workers who joined the protesters did nothing, but hold up their banners and stand amongst the protesters who did the same. Both groups acted in a similar manner in the sense that they were both quiet and held up their banners, the only noise being made was the periodic cheering as drivers went by and beeped the horns of their car in order to show their support. The only difference between the two groups of protesters was that some of the circus workers were somewhat more boisterous and certain workers from the circus made a dancing motion, waving their banners from side to side. The protest remained peaceful and after some time, the circus workers went back to the circus tent.

Three circus members holding up their banners alongside one protester holding up a banner with the opposite of “the tigers are coming”

Group photo of the protesters including the circus workers

Things became confrontational from the side of the circus, as the male worker, who was quite notable last night due to his behaviour, started taking photographs of the protesters. The main focus of his photos was that of a dog that was owned by another protester. The reason for the worker’s interest in the dog was that the dog was wearing a muffle and this is quite notable in the sense that the male worker was not only focused on taking photographs of the group and the dog while it was wearing the muffle, but the worker was also quite keen on frequently mentioning the muffle that the dog was wearing, making statements that our group was protesting for the welfare of animals and on that very same spot, there was a protester who had a dog wearing a muffle. Other protesters pointed out the purpose of the muffle, taking the safety of other pedestrians into consideration. However the worker ignored these claims and continued to belittle the group because he considered the protesters to be quite hypocritical. It should be noted that at first; the worker was taking photographs of the group using the camera that was equipped on his phone, but as time passed, the Courtney Brothers Circus worker utilised a DLSR camera for the purpose of taking photos of the group. The worker would also occasionally run across the road to take photos of the dog up close.

Worker taking photos of the group from across the road using the DLSR camera

Video of worker belittling the group (it is hard to hear with the car horns, but he is making the statement that the protesters are making a demonstration against the circus’s treatment of the animals while one of the protesters owns a dog that wears a muffle)

Video of worker taking pictures of the dog up close

The harassment coming from the circus worker then changed to two attempts at propaganda. The first attempt was the worker telling a young member of the Courtney Brothers Circus to run over to the group of protesters and offer some water to the dog that was with the protesters, from a metal bowl that the young member was holding. The worker tells the young member that he wants to get a photo of the young Courtney Circus member offering the dog the bowl of water. This caused a rise in tension as the protesters opposed the member’s actions and they did not let him offer the dog the water that was inside the metal bowl he was carrying

Photo of the young member with the bowl of water

Video of the male worker telling the young member about the photo he wants to get

The second attempt at propaganda was the onset of the peak of the circus’s intimidation as they got a  man, who was most likely someone who was associated with the circus, to walk over to the group of protesters and lecture them about discriminating against the dog that was wearing the muffle. The spectacle of this event came when I started to record the man giving the group of protesters this lecture for the purpose of this blog and once I started the recording, the man told me that he did not want his photograph to be taken. However unlike the female from the circus who told me that what I was doing was illegal, the man who approached the group was quite forward with regards his statement of not wanting his photo to be taken, as he put his hand over my camera. When he started doing this, the other group members told him to stop and to not touch one of the other members of the protest. The man then continued to belittle the group about the dog, even pretending to pity the dog as he leaned towards it and called it in a fake motherly tone. The man then walked away alongside the male worker of the Courtney Brothers Circus, making note of the fact that we are discriminating against the dog that was wearing the muffle. It should be noted that this doesn’t end with the men just walking across the road because once they crossed the road the man who lectured the protesters made a sexual gesture towards the group and walked away. Very much like the two men who posed right in front of the group of protesters on the sixth of July, this event was most likely a propaganda attempt as the man had some association with the Courtney Brother Circus as he continued to echo the same statement that the male worker at the circus was broadcasting.The circus tries to use this man as a way to try to make it seem as though  there are people that agree with them and their activities; using animals for live entertainment.

Video of the confrontation with regards the photograph

Photo of the man calling the dog

Following this event the male worker at the Courtney Brothers Circus continued to harass the group of protesters through a combination of repeating his words on the subject of the dog wearing the muffle and through whistling which is one way an owner calls a dog over to him/her and thus not only was the worker harassing the group through belittling them for nothing and showing fake pity for the dog, but  now he was putting a dog’s life in danger as there was another dog present that belonged to another member of the protest. The potential danger mainly lied in the potential for a dog getting run over by an oncoming car as it crossed the road to answer the worker that was whistling. It should be noted that the protesters made note of the implications of the male worker’s whistling, however he seemed ignorant of the presence of the second dog and thus when the protesters demanded that he cease his whistling along with adding the implications of his whistling, he notated that the dog wearing the muffle was on a lead before calling the protester who told him to stop a “fool”. Tension was rising as the male worker continued to whistle for the protester’s dog along with persistently harassing the group and thus the protest came to an end as the participants concluded their campaign for this evening and headed home.

Video of the worker whistling for the dog

Before I make my closing statement I would like to add a small point of interest which was a small set of horses that could be seen on a stretch of land at the back of where the circus tent was positioned. This is interesting in the sense that this is the first time in which I have seen the animals that have been used in the circus in plain sight rather than the animals being hidden like they usually are, however it should be noted that the animals are still hidden in the sense that the horses are barely within plain sight as one would have to go up close to the area in the photograph below to see the area where the horses are kept and there are still other animals that are hidden from the view of the general public

Photo of the horses

With regards this evening’s protest, I must say that in terms of the number of people that participated and the amount of support the protesters achieved during the period of time in which the protesters were positioned at their spots for the protest, the evening was a success as there was a maximum of sixteen people who attended and a significant amount of people beeped to give their support to the protesters. However the positivity is dulled by the immaturity and malicious behaviour of the people who work at Courtney Brothers Circus as they constantly harassed the group of protester, not only through their Counter Protest, but also through the accusation that they made that the protesters treat their pets no better than the circus members treat the animals they house, and the intimidation by the man, who the circus most likely sent to lecture the group of protesters about the supposed discrimination of the group’s protest. To close this article, I would like to say that alongside the success of the protests, there have been many other trifles that have been made in terms of the general theme of circuses that utilise animals for entertainment as certain circuses have ceased the use of tigers in their circus, for example Aran announced on their Facebook page on June 23^rd 2013 that Duffy’s circus owner announced that lions and tigers will not be performing in any more circus acts for the long term future, and thus not only have the protesters campaigning against the Courtney Brothers Circus met a substantial amount of success, but there have been trifles on other ends too and I hope that there are even more successes with regards animal welfare in the foreseeable future.

References

Facebook page for the protesters: https://www.facebook.com/groups/arklowagainstanimalcruelty/
Facebook page for Aran: https://www.facebook.com/pages/ARAN-Animal-Rights-Action-Network/155913217835225