Circus: Animal cruelty claims are fake news

Magician Ricardo Ricky says a Facebook post condemning the Suarez Brothers Circus for animal cruelty, and showing a monkey in a cage, is fake news.

During an interview at the Divali Nagar Site in Chaguanas yesterday, where the circus is making its fourth stop in its island-wide tour, Ricky said the photo accompanying the post is ten years old and was taken directly from Google Images.

He said the post has been shared by hundreds of users, damaging the reputation of the circus and putting a dent in ticket sales.

Police also visited the compound on Sunday, searching for any illegal or abused animals. On Monday, police and two army officers visited again, walking around the tents for a short while before leaving.

Ricky said the circus has only dogs in its acts, and took Newsday’s news team to the airconditioned trailer where the dogs are kept.

The dogs’ trainer, Russian Yrina Timoivea, brought two Dalmatian dogs out of the trailer. The female dogs jumped up on Timoivea until she picked one up and cradled her like a child, while the other played with Ricky. Within minutes, though, the dogs ran back into the trailer and Timoivea told Ricky the sun was too much for them.

“We do not have monkeys, we do not have any other type of animals except dogs,” Ricky said. “Our dogs are kept in an airconditioned trailer and have an outdoor enclosure where they can roam.”

Ricky said he did not understand why someone would try to defame or hurt the circus.

“There are about 50 people here who depend on this circus to live and to eat,” he said. “Our dogs are very well taken care off and we have never been accused of any abuse before.”

Ricky said the circus’s attorney contacted Veeda Gobin. the woman who made the allegations, asking her to remove the post. The circus is considering taking legal action against her.

In an interview with Newsday, Gobin said no one can prove she did not hear animals crying and screaming in pain on Friday and she is not afraid of litigation.

Gobin admitted that the photo of the monkey was downloaded from Google, but said she wanted to get the best picture to show “animals sad in cages” for her post. Asked about the post, she said, “At no point did I say that was a photo at the circus. The animals were screaming and I didn’t stop to take a photo. I just wanted a picture to show what a caged animal looks like.”

She said she used the word “animals” broadly but she only heard dogs “screaming and howling.”

“I was coming out of Extra Foods and as we were driving alongside the fence, we were hearing the dogs crying, a horde of them. Our car glass was up and we could still hear them. The door to the container was open and there were people standing there. The dogs were crying and nobody seemed bothered.”

Asked why she didn’t attach a photo of a dog to the post, Gobin said, “I think the monkey looks best for showing animals sad in a cage.”

She said it was logical that if the dogs were crying, they were in pain.

“Dogs have a certain way when they whimper and howl. It is a logical way of thinking why an animal would be making that noise.”

Asked how many dogs she saw in the container, Gobin said, “I only saw one, in the cage that was closest to the doorway of the container.

“If I am traveling out of Extra Foods, logic would tell you I could see a little piece from the doorway and if I see one, my logic would tell me it was packed with animals.”

She said if the circus’s owners reached out to her, apologised for what she heard on Friday and explained why the dogs were crying, she would consider doing a retraction of her statement.

“But if they want to sue, they could go ahead. They can’t go into my ears to say what I heard from what I did not hear. It is my word against theirs.”