After receiving thousands of e-mails and phone calls from concerned consumers across the country, Youngstown-based Schwebel Baking Company has ended its promotion of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.
PETA sent Schwebel's executives information about Ringling's long history of violating the federal Animal Welfare Act, as well as video footage from PETA's recent undercover investigation of the circus in which Ringling employees can be seen digging a sharp, metal-tipped bull hook into sensitive areas of elephants' bodies and striking and whipping elephants and tigers.
"Schwebel's decision means that the company will no longer support the whips, chains, and loneliness that define circuses such as Ringling," says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. "Ringling's history of beating animals is something that any business concerned about its public image can do without."
In grocery stores in several states, Schwebels had been offering coupons for discounted circus tickets with its products.
