Treatment of Ride Animals at County Fair

One day last week, we enthusiastically drove an hour and a half in smoggy 95-degree heat (with no air conditioner) to make our annual pilgrimage to the L.A. County Fair in Pomona. We had a great time, as usual, until we came upon pony and elephant rides tucked away in an obscure corner of the fairgrounds.

The only other nearby attraction was a live Western band on an open stage about 20 feet from the ponies. The ear-splitting music blaring through the amplifiers was so loud we winced, with eardrums pounding, until we were well past both the ponies and elephants. No doubt their hearing is more sensitive than ours.

It is depressing to see those pathetic, broken-spirited animals wasting away hour after hour, week after week, plodding around in circles in the heat with kids gleefully kicking and screaming on their backs. Then, I presume, when this fair is over, they’re carted along the highway to the next money-making town to do it over again and again; it’s a totally unnatural life for them.

I find that routine in itself totally unthinkable, but what I witnessed last week absolutely stunned me. It was shameful and deplorable. We will never again attend the L.A. County Fair or any other attraction unless we are assured that these “traditional” barbaric, inexcusable acts of abusive animal exploitation will not be part of the “fun.”

CHRIS LEVERICH

Playa del Rey