Animal Rights Activists Protest Outside Circus : Demonstration: They claim there are widespread abuses in entertainment industry.

Animal rights activists waved banners and shouted slogans outside the opening performance of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus at the Sports Arena on Thursday night to protest what they said is widespread abuse of animals in the entertainment industry.

“It’s a life of stress and sadness for the elephants,” said actress Tippi Hedren, who has long championed animal causes.

“I’m not against circuses,” she said. “I’m against using animals in circuses. The brutality of being chained up for their entire lives, that’s what they do to these elephants.”

The demonstrators held up signs saying such things as: “The circus is no fun for animals,” and “Teach your children compassion, not exploitation.”

One man, dressed in an elephant suit, paraded in chains beside the arriving crowd, and actress Cassandra Peterson, best known to movie fans as horror show hostess Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, handed out coloring books.

Despite their efforts, the 20 protesters, who kept well to the side of the arena’s main entrance, were largely ignored by the opening night crowd.

The people who paid the most attention to them were counterdemonstrators from the group Putting People First, who argued that circuses are the only way for many urban children to see wild animals.

Thursday’s animal rights demonstration was the latest in a burgeoning movement aimed at tightening the regulations governing the care and treatment of animals and limiting their use in entertainment.

During the Ringling Bros. visit to the Sports Arena two years ago, protesters carried banners proclaiming it “The Cruelest Show on Earth.” In May, 1991, the Carson and Barnes 5-Ring Circus cut short a visit to Ventura County after demonstrations by the group Animal Emancipation Inc.

Florence Lambert, who organized protests at the Sports Arena, founded her Elephant Alliance in 1988 in response to the controversial beating of an elephant at the San Diego Wild Animal Park.

Concerns also have been expressed about the treatment of elephants at the Los Angeles Zoo. Hannibal, a five-ton African bull elephant, died in March during a failed attempt to transport the sedated pachyderm to a zoo near Mexico City.

Animal activists have long expressed concern about how big animals are treated while being moved. Lambert frequently cites what she calls the “brutal discipline” and “unnatural and abnormal existence” circus animals are forced to endure while on the road.

In response to the demonstrations, Ringling Bros. has issued statements denying that the animals are abused. The statements say the circus is regularly inspected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and that Ringling Bros. officials developed standards for animal welfare long before it became “a fashionable cause.”

The opening night show included a fund-raiser for the National Dyslexia Research Foundation.