What is an animal rights activist to do when a zoo association conference, the Ringling circus, and Veg Fest all converge in Portland in the same week? At IDA, we got busy! Thanks to all the amazing volunteers who came out and helped make this a fabulously successful week of outreach for the animals!

Eric confronts a conference attendee.

IDA not letting AZA off the hook in Portland.

In the trial, Ringling was charged for violations of the Endangered Species Act, with mountains of evidence including video and whistleblower accounts, detailing how Ringing routinely beats elephants and chains them in box cars for as many as 100 consecutive hours. As the trial was ongoing and Keele was testifying, an undercover investigator was videotaping Ringling handlers routinely whipping and beating elephants.

IDA's Catherine Doyle came up from L.A. for the AZA event.

For two days, advocates held signs and leafleted to the conference attendees with the message, “Don’t let circuses off the hook for elephant abuse,” calling for the AZA to take a stand against circus abuse to elephants. And that was just Monday and Tuesday!

Kiska grimaces in disbelief at the circus goers.

Starting Wednesday, IDA began hosting five days of demos including each of the eight Ringling performances in Portland. As many 20 or more activists turned out for some shows, and thousands of circus-goers were educated about the abuses suffered by animals at Ringling. And at times, it got tense, with Ringling staff or angry circus-goers behaving badly, but the cooler heads of the animal advocates prevailed, keeping the message on-point about animal suffering.

Both of the elephant walks, where Ringling marches the elephants from their train to the arena and then back again after the last performance, were caught on video by volunteers to make sure any abuses didn’t go undocumented. An assault charge was filed against one Ringling staff when they intentionally shoved an activist, causing her to stumble, trip, and nearly fall down and steep slope.

IDA’s Matt Rossell was interviewed for a KOIN 6 news story that included allegations of abuse of the elephants. He leveled accusations of circus abuse from his personal experience working undercover on a circus, stating that elephants are trained using pain, punishment and dominance.

Stanley talks with an interested passer-by at the IDA table at VegFest.

And the antidote to all the elephant abusers being in town was the all-day annual Portland Veg Fest put on by NW Veg, also at the Oregon Convention Center. IDA had cheerful volunteers taking shifts at our table, kept busy all day by the constant stream of people eager to find out more about IDA and what they can do to help animals. Three thousand people attended to sample delicious vegan food, shop and peruse hundreds of vendor tables, and get educated from the impressive line-up of speakers and cooking demonstrations.

Our enormous banner could be seen all over the hall at VegFest.

It was a great day of outreach for IDA, our big beautiful banner exclaimed, “Choose compassion with every bite, go vegan!” and the public responded positively, picking up hundreds of Vegan Starter Kits and and signing up in droves for our eNews updates.