PETA, the radical animal-rights group, wants to put circuses out of business, and, it would appear, the Neumann University Alumni Association agrees. At least in part because of a letter on the subject from PETA, the alums, reported CNS News, ceased and desisted from offering discounted tickets to a Barnum & Bailey’s Circus show.

PETA, notes Bethany Stotts, has a record of hammering Ringling Bros., for instance, alleging that “ringling beats animals.”

CNS also indicated PETA has been on an anti-circus jag across the education spectrum. For example, the group declared it sent “Ellie,” a “play” elephant with a bloody bandage wrapped around a head wound, to greet students as they exited elementary schools. The elephant sported a button reading “Circuses Are No Fun for Animals” and dispensed activity books illustrating the group’s accusations of animal abuse.

But it seems that all is not pristine in PETA Funland. CNS adds:

According to the consumer group [the Center for Consumer Freedom], PETA is guilty of “hypocrisy,” because it has euthanized the vast majority of stray cats and dogs it takes in and had found homes for fewer than one percent in 2008. Records PETA filed with the state of Virginia last year show they euthanized more than 95 percent of the pets in its care, excluding animals brought in to be spayed or neutered and then returned to their owners. “Out of the 2,216 animals PETA took during 2008, it managed to find homes for a mere seven animals — despite an annual budget of $32 million.” “What’s the reason for PETA’s hypocrisy? Money,” the CCF said. “It’s easier and cheaper to run media campaigns berating circuses than to actually roll up a sleeve or two and save cats and dogs. The last thing PETA wants to do is actually take care of animals. That’s expensive” (emphasis added).

Circuses, no fun for children? How about if Neumann’s alums convene to consider if PETA is any fun for animals?