Animal rights protest at O.C. fair

Protesters crowded around the elephant rides at the Orange County

Fair Sunday and urged fairgoers to boycott the attraction, alleging

that captivity and training is harmful to the animals.

The demonstration, led by Orange County People for Animals, was

peaceful and did not cause any problems, said Lisa MacDonald, the

fair’s director of communications.

In their second appearance at the fair this year, protesters

passed out fliers and held up signs stating that the elephants were

being mistreated and had been wrongfully taken away from their

natural habitat.

Kari Johnson, owner and operator of Have Trunk Will Travel, the

company that runs the elephant rides, said the protestors’ claims

were not true.

The Asian elephant is an endangered species, and a moratorium on

importing the elephants into the United States has been in place

since 1973, Johnson said.

The elephants used in the rides come from zoos or other facilities

within the United Statesand have not been taken from the wild,

Johnson said.

Elephants at the fair do not work for more than one hour at a

time, she added.

All proceeds from the elephant rides go to conservation and

breeding programs at the elephant ranch that Johnson and her husband,

Gary, have operated for 30 years. Johnson learned to work with

elephants at an early age, assisting her stepfather, who worked as an

elephant trainer.

According to Orange County People for Animals (OCPA), elephants

should not live in captivity, no matter what the situation.

“Elephants don’t do this naturally,” said OCPA board member Alison

Stanley, of Long Beach.

Stanley said the elephants used by Have Trunk Will Travel were

sold into captivity and ripped away from their mothers. “It’s cruel

from beginning to end,” Stanley said.

OCPA is an organization that specializes in education about

institutionalized animal abuse, said OCPA President Tina Locklear, of

Orange.

“We’re not just a bunch of wackos out here,” Locklear said. “We’ve

actually done some research.”

Fliers available to the public at Sunday’s protest said that

“elephants are dangerous animals” and can transmit tuberculosis to

humans.

In her thirty-year history working with elephants, Johnson said,

she has witnessed only one “incident” -- a spooked elephant that

bolted and ran through a crowd at a Denver zoo. No one was injured,

she said.

The elephants have always been -- and remain -- a favorite

attraction at fairs, Johnson said.

As the protesters swirled around the area just inside the fair’s

west gate, fairgoers did not seem to be deterred -- the line for the

elephant rides was long.

Johnson said despite the presence of protesters, business was

good.

“We’ve gotten only support, and it’s not hurt us at all,” Johnson

said.