Mere minutes before the start of last night’s Anaheim City Council meeting, Councilwoman Lorri Galloway’s colleagues learned she would pull her proposed ordinance to ban circus animals from city soil. Her target was Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, which has the temerity to entertain children and their parents with exotic animals like elephants and tigers, all while making…wait for it…a profit!
Councilwoman Galloway explained that those who had urged her to introduce the ordinance – animal rights organization like PETA – had asked her to pull it. While there’s no reason to doubt that is true, it doesn’t answer the question of why PETA would want it pulled.
The obvious answer is they knew it was unlikely to attract the support of any councilmember other than Galloway, and would be defeated if put to a vote. Thus, better to pull the ordinance and see if the November election produces a council more amenable to supporting a faddish cause that afflicts the tender consciences of an affluent, left-leaning constituency.
But, even though Councilwoman Galloway’s anti-circus ordinance would not be voted on that night – or possibly be ever, since she is termed out in about nine weeks – she nonetheless asked the assembled animal rights activists to address the council during public comments. Which they did, burning up about 2 hours commenting on an issue that wasn’t before the council and wasting the time of everyone else in attendance for more serious matters.
