Letter of the day: Carrying water for PETA, not protecting kids

Last update: January 31, 2008 - 6:29 PM

Operating under the false pretense that being elected to the prestigious Minneapolis City Council gives him carte blanche to impose PETA's fringe agenda on the rest of us, Cam Gordon, hero to persecuted pachyderms, appears bent on running the Shrine Circus, and all the good it does, out of Minneapolis.

Since his proposed all-out ban on circus elephants failed in September, Clever Cam, marinading in sour grapes, has decided to play the role of busybody and tack on an amendment to the proposed ordinance that would forbid children from touching or riding elephants. Perfectly aware that elephant rides are a large source of revenue for the circus, Gordon is attempting to hurt the circus financially and impose a de facto ban by citing a newfound concern for "public safety."

To hear Gordon tell it, letting small, grinning children touch or, even worse, enjoy a short ride on a circus elephant is akin to placing a child on a trunked, floppy-eared 5,000-pound grenade, then pulling the pin. And to back up his assertion that circus elephants pose a public safety threat, Gordon even provided this troubling list of the names of children maimed by elephants at the Shrine Circus. It looks like this: ----.

So instead of laughably hiding behind the public safety issue, Gordon and the other elephant-obsessed members of the Minneapolis City Council should just admit that they're sore losers and, acting as dutiful stooges for the animal-rights lobby, are callously putting a far-left agenda ahead of the free orthopedic care the Shriners' hospitals provide to needy children.

MATT DREW, MINNEAPOLIS

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