Kansas City News Blog

​The Sprint Center is no stranger to protesters from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Last year, a young lady wearing nothing but bikini-bottoms, pasties and a whole lot of orange body paint, crouched in a cage outside the venue to show the activists' disdain for the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

This year, the animal rights' organization wanted to make a more lasting impression about the alleged mistreatment of circus animals. But the Kansas City Parks and Recreation Department wanted no part of its 800-pound idea.

​Meet Ella Phantzperil, a nearly 5-foot tall polyurethane-resin sculpture created by The New Yorker cartoonist, Harry Bliss. Chained and crying, the baby elephant is draped with a blanket that says "See Shackles, Bullhooks, Loneliness -- All Under the Big Top." In 2003, PETA purchased Ella for activist purposes, displaying the elephant in an Austin, Texas, shopping center and a public park in Bridgeport, Connecticut (a few blocks from the The Barnum Museum).

Next stop: Kansas City?

In late July, Thomas Deans, a PETA activist, contacted the Kansas City Parks and Recreation Department, requesting permission to place the statue in a public park for 30 days. Barnum and Bailey is coming to town on September 16 and PETA wanted to have the weeping animal set up by September 9. It only took a week for Parks to turn PETA down. On August 7, Shari Brown, an administrative assistant in the department, told Deans in an e-mail, "I have spoken with the Director of Parks and Recreation and other key officials and their response is no, because it contains a political statement."

PETA didn't like that rationale. This week, Martina Bernstein, an attorney for PETA, sent a letter to Parks' director, Mark McHenry. PETA, she wrote, was "puzzled" by the Parks' denial. She argued that a shackled elephant isn't political at all.

"This message is unmistakably humanitarian and ethical in nature -- intended to remind the public of the treatment elephants endure while constantly traveling and performing in circuses in which they are separated from their families and their natural environment," Berstein wrote. "Ella Phantzperil does not endorse any political candidates, proposes no legislative actions and does not have a political agenda of any kind. It is as unrelated to politics as the images of wildlife by Paul McMillan, currently on temporary display at Swope Park."

"Even assuming, for the sake of argument, that Ella Phantzperil did contain a political statement, this provides no basis for denying PETA's request," she continued. "It is a bedrock principle of Constitutional law that government may not restrict an expressive activity because of its content."

Too bad the request has nothing to do with the First Amendment, William Geary, an assistant city attorney, responded yesterday. In a letter to Berstein and Deans, Geary cited the Supreme Court in explaining that cities are at liberty to choose the monuments displayed in their public parks. To put Ella in a city green space, Geary argued, would be "asking the government, Kansas City, to speak in a way favorable to your viewpoint."

"The placement of a 150 pound statue on a 700 pound base would insert the City and its Parks and Recreation Department into this public conversation even though we do not wish to engage in a conversation on what is appropriate character of treatment of elephants in a circus," he wrote.

Apparently, that letter wasn't enough to deter PETA -- the activists' legal team was still hard at work last night, crafting a response.