Two Big Big Tops Blasted: Feds Fine Pugh's Cole Bros. for Illegal Elephant Sale; Parent Pans UniverSoul for Stripper & Pimp Skit

Endangered Species Act violators: John Pugh and Wilbur Davenport, between whom a nefarious sale of two Cole Bros. Circus elephants occurred in 2006, both now facing three years of probation mandating 100 hours a year of community service. Prosecutors, who reached a plea agreement on misdemeanor charges last Tuesday in Texas with Pugh and Davenport, leveled a $150,000 fine against Cole Bros. Circus itsself and placed it on a four-year probation. Pugh admitted having "failed to assure" that Davenport had secured the papers necessary to satisfy federal regulations. Cole's Renee Storey characterized the issue as a "technicality."

Hardly a technicality if, in fact, Davenport mistreated the bulls as he was subsequently charged by federal inspectors. Davenport, in fact, lost custody in 2009 of the two purchased pachyderms, Tina and Jewell (companions for 30 years) after sufficient evidence surfaced that he failed to ensure for their safety and to provide "adequate veterinary care or food." ... An especially sad tale coming after upbeat reports of Cole Bros. reaping some boffo crowds last season and now considering the addition of more seats and/or rings to its apparently rebounding big top ... Now, just where and how, I wonder, will Johnny serve out his" community service"? ... Why, Johnny, why? ...

Shame Over Sawdust! Mini dramas under circus tents are not, historically speaking, new. The early American shows presented narrative enactments, however crude, of great themes. Here comes UniverSoul Circus, which per custom, usually ends the show on a low note of sex, drugs, gospel hymns and and more sex and drugs, all of it parading under the dubious guise of a morality lesson. This year, producing pastor Cedric Walker (he's the guy who owns UniverSoul) has uncorked a shocker of a ring grabber replete with strippers, Johns, coke sniffers, and a woman who is sold to a pimp by her very own boyfriend, gets slapped around until she surrenders to her new job description. Which brings to mind what a terrific spec could be told here through the novel use of such traditional circus items as the trampoline, the springboard and the cracking whips. Not all the mothers out in the audience were thrilled ...

One acutely offended patron, Kristine Brown, told WSBTV in Atlanta of having been absolutely outraged. "I didn't think that was child friendly at all," she complained. The whole sordid spectacle caused her to hustle her two kids, aged five and eight, out of the tent in haste -- she missed the tale's redeeming end where the woman forced into prostitution finds an escape route (a magic act?), "giving her life to Christ." Defending the item as a "gospel-themed finale" (I am laughing out loud as I write this), the show's spin master Hank Ernest explained, "Our show is about positive messages and sometimes to get to these you have to go to those lows." A few other mamas agreed with Ms. Brown, but others defended the skit as being not "too graphic." I recall, at UniverSoul about five years ago, having to endure a loud obnoxious ringmistress who called herself "grandma from the hood" and who carried on like a woman in her declining years forging the streets for fast thrills. The message in that, pastor Walker? ...