Photo by: Humane World for Animals
This past weekend, attendees at the Murat Shrine Circus in Indianapolis were confronted with a troubling spectacle: elephants forced to perform under the threat of bullhooks, sharp, steel-tipped weapons designed to inflict pain and assert dominance. Despite a city ordinance explicitly banning such devices, handlers from the Oklahoma-based Carson & Barnes Circus used them openly, drawing swift condemnation and calls for action.
Kelly and Viola, the elephants involved, are part of a dwindling group of aging, wild-caught elephants still exploited in U.S. circus performances. Both have a documented history of attempted escapes and signs of behavioral distress, underscoring the deep trauma and physical suffering caused by decades of exploitation.
The use of bullhooks in Indianapolis violates a local law that prohibits not only their use but also the threatened use of tools capable of causing physical injury or suffering to animals. Yet footage from the Murat Shrine Circus shows handlers brandishing the weapon in clear defiance of the ordinance.
Upon witnessing this apparent violation, Humane World for Animals immediately alerted local law enforcement, submitting video evidence and urging a formal investigation.
“Witnessing these majestic, wild animals forced to perform under threat of pain underscores what we’ve long known: circus life is no life for an elephant or any wild animal,” said Samantha Chapman, Indiana state director for Humane World for Animals. “It also underscores that out-of-town operators are willing to defy local rules intended to limit suffering of animals in their cruel animal acts. Indianapolis’s bullhook ban is clearly failing to deter animal abuse from occurring within our city, and the Indianapolis City-County Council must take steps to prohibit traveling wild animal acts altogether.”
Kelly and Viola are not only victims of recent abuse, they are survivors of a lifetime of exploitation. Captured in the wild as babies, they have been paraded across the country for decades, forced to perform tricks under threat of punishment. Now elderly, both elephants reportedly suffer from chronic health conditions, including arthritis, caused by prolonged confinement and unnatural living conditions.
Their suffering has not gone unnoticed. Viola has escaped from her handlers at least three times, most recently in 2024, when she wandered through a Montana neighborhood and across busy streets before being recaptured with bullhooks. Kelly, too, has fled the circus on multiple occasions.
The suffering endured by captive elephants doesn’t just affect the animals, it also endangers humans. In 2005, a trainer was trampled to death by an elephant in Fort Wayne after a Shrine Circus performance. In 2009, more than a dozen people were injured at the Murat Shrine Circus in Indianapolis when an elephant giving rides knocked over a staircase.
Despite these risks, Carson & Barnes Circus remains one of more than a dozen U.S. circuses that still force wild animals to perform. By contrast, major productions such as Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, Cirque du Soleil, and UniverSoul Circus have demonstrated that successful, family-friendly entertainment does not require animal exploitation.
Animal welfare advocates argue that local ordinances, though well-intentioned, fail to protect animals when enforcement is weak or ignored by traveling circuses. They are now urging the Indianapolis City-County Council to take stronger action by banning all wild animal acts from performing within city limits.
TAKE ACTION: Concerned residents are encouraged to contact the Indianapolis City-County Council and urge them to support a ban on traveling wild animal acts HERE!
