Karl Hildebrandt, PR to McLaren Circus
This weekend drew thousands of circus supporters with sold-out shows all weekend long.
An invite was sent out to journalist, Xola Qetsemani, to visit our circus event and get feedback from those, who actually watched and experienced the show, but it seems like Xola only had time to attend the protest which was against our event.
It seems like Xola purposely only attended the protest and got their views to promote the ideals of Beauty without Cruelty.
I understand effort was made by email to get the circus’s response, and owner, David McLaren, ensured a response was issued within hours of receiving the email. Despite that, your report incorrectly identified the owner of the circus as Duncan McLaren.
We even made sure to invite and offer a “behind the scenes tour”.
I feel Xola could have done a way better job of covering the issue and writing a well rounded article instead of just focusing on one aspect. I would also like to point out that the same people who Xola interviewed eat meat.
They are accepting of animals being killed for them to consume but are against the well-cared for condition of our circus animals.
It’s somewhat contradictory that these people would have “a voice for the animals” when they are still supporting the industry they oppose.
Our staff are extremely hard-working, and we are forever ensuring we maintain only the best name within our industry.
Tabletalk apologises for incorrectly identifying Duncan McLaren as the owner of the circus.
In this instance, as we have done when we reported on the protests against the circus before, we gave McLaren Circus the right of reply.
The circus’ response is reflected in our stories and we therefore do not agree that our reporting was biased.
