Eureka Springs has banned traveling circuses that feature wild or exotic animals, but a pro-circus group plans a petition drive to force a citywide referendum on the issue.
On Monday night, the Eureka Springs City Council voted 4-2 on two subsequent readings at the same meeting to pass Ordinance 2224, which bans traveling circuses.
The move riled Alderman Mickey Schneider, who argued that the issue should be sent to city voters to decide.
"What's the rush?" Schneider asked Alderman James DeVito, who proposed the third reading of the ordinance. "Prove the emergency. There is none. ... The majority of people here don't give a damn about the people's right to vote."
Three City Council members -- DeVito, Joyce Zeller and David Mitchell -- said they felt that citizens were in agreement on the issue and that a citywide vote wasn't necessary.
"In the six to eight months that we have been laboring over this ordinance, there has been nobody from this community come before us in favor of the circus," DeVito told the council. "I feel that everyone has had more than adequate time to come before us."
Ordinance 2224 prohibits exhibitions or performances in which wild or exotic animals are transported more than 50 miles within 15 days of the show.
The ban is "highly symbolic" because the only time a circus has set up in the tourist town in the past 30 years was last fall, said Rachel Brix, who started the grass-roots circus-ban effort when she heard Carson & Barnes Circus planned two performances in Eureka Springs on Nov. 5.
"We're known as an animal-loving town, so to not have this ordinance really doesn't make sense," said Brix, who owns a pet grooming shop in Eureka Springs.
Across the country, cities have been banning circus performances because of concerns about animal abuse, particularly to elephants.
Brix said about 52 cities in 23 states have circus bans, and Eureka Springs' ban is the first one in Arkansas.
Brenda Tenan, president of the Eureka Springs Carnival Association, said she'll get the signatures needed to force a referendum.
"That's not really fair to do two readings the same night of one ordinance," said Tenan, who lives in Holiday Island. "It's basically like a slap in the face to the public. It's like saying 'We don't need your input.'"
To force a referendum on the issue, Tenan would need only 96 signatures from Eureka Springs voters. That's 15 percent of the 637 who voted in the mayoral election last year.
The City Council rejected the circus ban by a vote of 4-2 on Nov. 10, but it was placed back on the agenda this year, after voters elected a new mayor and alderman. It passed 4-2 on its first reading on Feb. 23. Proposed ordinances must be approved in three readings to become city law.
Brix spoke to the City Council about the issue Oct. 13.
"Keeping elephants in chains and confining wild animals in small cages and forcing them to perform unnatural tricks for the sole purpose of human entertainment is increasingly hard to justify in our advanced society," Brix told the council.
Jerry Milligan of Springfield, Mo., a representative of Carson & Barnes Circus of Hugo, Okla., also spoke at the Oct. 13 council meeting. He said the circus's animals are treated humanely, and he's never seen an injured elephant performing.
Carson & Barnes Circus also had performances in November in Blytheville, Walnut Ridge, Yellville/Summit and Rogers.
The circus performs in 220 cities a year, Kristin Parra, an office manager for Carson & Barnes, said in November. Traveling with the show are about 80 workers and 40 animals, including two elephants, camels and a llama.
Brix said people have fond memories of circuses from their childhoods, but they don't realize the abuse the animals sometimes endure.
"It was definitely a battle," she said. "When folks are so entrenched in these ideas, it's a hard thing to change."
Brix said Animal Defenders International provided advice and materials for her circus-ban effort.
At Monday's meeting, Alderman Terry McClung said there had been so much controversy surrounding the circus ban ordinance that circus promoters would probably avoid Eureka Springs in the future. McClung said passing an ordinance to keep them away was unnecessary.
"The chances of a circus coming back to Eureka Springs for a profit venture are zero," he told the council. "I think the chances of Noah coming to town with two animals of each kind is as likely as the circus returning to Eureka Springs. I think it's a waste of our time."
Mitchell said the city was making a statement with the circus ban.
"The real reason for this ordinance is Eureka Springs goes on record with many cities, counties, states and countries around the world," Mitchell told the council. "Eureka Springs is making a statement."
Tenan said Carson & Barnes Circus wants to return to Eureka Springs. The Nov. 5 performances in Eureka Springs' Lake Leatherwood City Park drew more than 700 people, which is a "great turnout" for a Wednesday night in off-season November.
The Eureka Springs Carnival Association raised $1,500 through the circus, and $1,000 of that went to the Eureka Springs After School Program, said Tenan.
On March 5, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus announced that it would eliminate elephants from its circus performances by 2018. The move came as cities across the country enacted bans like the one in Eureka Springs.
"Under the plan, 13 elephants currently traveling with the three Ringling Bros. circus units will be relocated to the Ringling Bros. Center for Elephant Conservation in Florida by 2018," according to a news release from Feld Entertainment, the parent company of the circus. "There they will join the rest of the Ringling Bros. herd of more than 40 elephants."
Kenneth Feld, chairman and chief executive officer of Feld Entertainment, said no other institution has done or is doing more to save this species from extinction.
"This decision was not easy, but it is in the best interest of our company, our elephants and our customers," he said in the news release.
DeVito mentioned the Ringling Bros. decision at Monday's council meeting.
"The 600-pound elephant that's sitting in the room right now is that the largest and most powerful circus in the world is doing away with elephants," he said.
Ordinance 2224 won't affect the Great Passion Play or Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge, which are both outside the city limits of Eureka Springs. The Passion Play uses several animals, including camels, in its performances, and Turpentine Creek has large cats, including tigers.