WestConn Bans Circuses With Animals

DANBURY (AP) — School officials have issued a ban on circus animal acts at Western Connecticut State University.

The decision by WestConn President James Roach comes after a series of protests by animal rights activists against circus performances at the school’s O’Neill Center.

“We would not want to support a program that the university community thought would be inappropriate,” Mr Roach said Monday.

Mr Roach said the school must fulfill contracts with two circuses with animals this year, but would enter into no further contracts.

O’Neill Center Executive Director Victor Dellaripa said beyond the questions over animal rights, traveling circuses without elephants, lions, and other beasts are usually more economical to run and easier to set up for at each stop.

Among the activists who lobbied Mr Roach are WestConn senior Michelle Weinstein, the vice president of the Student Government Association.

“Through my own actions I try to support kindness to animals in every way and that means not eating them, not abusing them and not wearing them,” Miss Weinstein said.