Pittsburgh mayoral candidate Darlene Harris defended Monday her weekend appearance atop a circus elephant and camel, saying that she wanted to check on their treatment.
“Sitting on them, you can see the back of the elephant’s ears and see how they’re taken care of,” Mrs. Harris, a City Council member, told reporters at the City-County Building. She said that “those animals are taken care of better than some people take care of people.”
She saw “nothing to harm those animals at all” when she went backstage Sunday at the 68th annual Shrine Circus, Mrs. Harris said. She posted several photos Monday on Facebook that illustrate her visit at a circus staging facility — posts that fired up both supporters and critics.
Some accused her of animal exploitation, hypocrisy and embarrassing the city. The circus appeared over the weekend at PPG Paints Arena.
Mrs. Harris said both the Shrine and Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circuses invited City Council members for personal tours after a city proposal last year sought to ban the performances of wild and exotic animals.
The suggested ordinance, which effectively would keep the traditional circus out of town, awaits a long-delayed council vote amid a furious controversy. Mrs. Harris, a self-described animal lover, opposed the proposal.
Council President Bruce Kraus, who sponsored the legislation, said it would attempt to keep animals from being bred, caged and transported “solely for [their] entertainment value.” Supporters continue to lobby for council support, he said.
“People’s approach to what a circus brings as entertainment is changing,” Mr. Kraus said. “I think more and more people want to see more of a digital platform, if you will, and a ‘Cirque du Soleil’ kind of approach to circuses as opposed to a cruelly affecting that animal’s life.”
A frequent adversary of Mrs. Harris, Mr. Kraus said her “photo-op-ing at the circus with animals just clearly shows she has no understanding of what we’re trying to accomplish. Of course, in that environment, an animal is going to be presented as though it’s been [treated] with all due amenity.”
Mrs. Harris spent hours Sunday behind the scenes at the Shrine Circus, where she saw no signs of abuse or neglect, she said.
She doesn’t know of any animal abuse by a circus in Pittsburgh, she said. She said she mounted the elephant — named Tracey — and Rudolph the camel at the circus staff’s impromptu invitation while she was at the staging facility. She rode them for a few minutes, she said.
She posted photos online “because I thought they were cute” and to document the visit, said Mrs. Harris, who is running against Mayor Bill Peduto for the Democratic mayoral nomination. She said “people that know me know I care deeply about animals.”
Still, Mrs. Harris said, “the elephant was kind of rocky.”
Adam Smeltz: 412-263-2625, asmeltz@post-gazette.com, @asmeltz.
First Published: April 10, 2017, 9:06 p.m.
Updated: April 10, 2017, 9:23 p.m.
