Save the "animals" in the circus.

To Circus Fans and Concerned Citizens all ... Unite to defeat the plan to end the Circus in Atlanta, GA! CALL TO ACTION - SAVE THE CIRCUS! In Fulton County (Atlanta, Georgia) Commissioner Robert Pitts has introduced a proposed ordinance to ban guides used in handling elephants. If passed, this would effectively become the first significant "ban on circuses" in the USA. Similar bans have found their way into law in obscure locales where animal rights activists quietly sneak their narrow point of view into place. We cannot allow this to occur in Fulton County! Nobody I know would stand idle and allow an animal to be abused. Abuse of animals occurs in Fulton County and across this great nation on the streets of our towns and cities - but NOT at the circus where animals are loved and well cared for. So why is this resolution in place? Since the verbiage regurgitates propaganda right out of the animal rights playbooks, we can only conclude that its sponsor, Commissioner Robb Pitts, was somehow influenced by animal rights extremists. A few days ago a vote was taken and the resolution deadlocked at 3 votes versus 3 votes with Robb Pitts abstaining. The resolution comes up again at a meeting to take place on Wednesday, November 3rd, beginning at 10:30 am (signups earlier), Fulton City Center, in Atlanta. Representatives and experts from the circus industry will be in attendance. So will representatives of the Circus Fans Association of America. BUT - there is only 30 minutes allotted to public opinion! We need your help! Send emails, letters, and make phone calls to all 7 commissioners. We'd like them to receive an unprecedented number of emails before they get to this meeting. Such efforts have turned around destructive legislation in similar situations.

Here is how: Go to followthecircus.com and follow the directions to send your email to all seven commissioners. Contact information for the commissioners can also be found here at FultonCountyGA.gov. If you act early you may choose to write a letter to: Fulton County Board of Commissioners, 141 Pryor Street SW, 10th FL, Atlanta, GA 30303 or FAX your letter to: 404-730-8254 We won't tell you what to say. We don't think that's appropriate. But we'll make some suggestions to help you get started: Give a clear reasoning for your opposition to the resolution. Be brief -One page please. Make 2 or 3 points at most and back them up with facts. Get 4 or 5 friends to make another 2 or 3 points. Send this email today to 5 friends and ask them to do the same! In the "Subject" box of your email, type in the words: Please VOTE NO - Opposed the resolution to amend article VI of Chapter 34 - the resolution that would prohibit the elephant guide you call a bullhook. Or words very similar to this. This helps statehouse employees to sort opinion, and our stack will be the tallest! There is a difference between animal welfare and animal "rights." Don't let the extremists get away with destructive legislation aimed at the circus.

What's next? A ban on birthday cake? (All that sugar!) Remember that these very same extremists garner millions in public donations by showing "the poor animals" on television. They profit while thousands of adoptable animals are destroyed. These same extremists would also take away your right to eat meat or go fishing! They ultimately seek to remove cats and dogs from your lives as well.

Eliminating the circus and performing animals is but one part of their very large agenda.

Don't let them get away with it! Act now (they must hear from us before November 3rd). We stand ready to help you write your letters ... phone and email below.

SAVE THE CIRCUS!

Gary C. Payne
Eastern Vice President
National Animal Welfare Committee Chairman
Circus Fans Association of America
ptgcp@aol.com 860-833-7925

Visit circusfans.org (Click on grassrootscircusfans link in the left sidebar) for more information.
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"Good luck on this, and lord know's we need a few more win's, given the "public relations" the industry has done for it's self, the past couple of years. We need to thank Gary Payne, David Orr etc. and other hardworking, concerned, "volunteer" folks for their help. I want to also commend Mr. Payne for finally going to the issue of animal "rights" and animal "welfare". Two very different animals with two very different agendas, animal welfare being the most important aspect of a captive animals life, and animal rights being a waste of the worlds time and resource's. That "grassroots" deal is real cheesy though. Let's build our own "bandwagon" instead of climbing aboard someone elses. I know the industry has the capability to innovate. I applaude the effort to "learn" folks on how to write a letter to an official, although it is sad to think that you have to, although the suggestion that you write a letter with some point's and you get friends to write another with other points, smells a bit like Boss Tweed shaving the long hair, then the beard, then the mustache off of a constituant back in the day's of 5 Points in order to get the 4 votes. But then, what do I know. I have less then a clue about the lobby game, and I sure don't claim to be a politician. Good luck, and in this case we will be "winning one for the RJR."