Photo by Tony DeFilippo

The circus won’t be much fun for everyone this year.

Today People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals filed a complaint with the D.C. Office of Campaign Finance alleging that Mayor Vince Gray’s office violated conflict-of-interest rules last year by accepting discounted ticket vouchers while not properly investigating claims that elephants used by Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in its shows at the Verizon Center were shackled in violation of D.C. law.

Said PETA in a press release:

For the past two years, PETA has notified the mayor’s office that Ringling shackles elephants by two legs—denying the animals the opportunity to take more than one step in any direction and forcing them to urinate and defecate in the same area in which they must stand. D.C. law specifies that elephants may not be cruelly tethered in such a way. The office’s acceptance of a gift of discounted circus ticket vouchers violates D.C.’s conflict-of-interest law, which states that public officials shall not take anything of value when it could be inferred that it might influence the discharge of that official’s duties. The D.C. Department of Health has refused to intervene to stop Ringling’s violations of D.C. animal-care laws for two consecutive years.

According to the complaint, which is below, in 2011 the Department of Health said it would only conduct inspections of the circus from 8:15 a.m. to 4:45 p.m., despite the fact that the circus admitted that it shackled elephants during nighttime hours. The same decision to inspect the circus only during workday hours was repeated this year, even though PETA says that city inspectors were on hand for the recent elephant walk—which took place from 8 to 10 p.m. (The Post’s Mike DeBonis first reported on PETA’s claims two weeks ago.)

“The EOM’s acceptance of hundreds of discounted ticket vouchers from Ringling is a clear violation of D.C. conflict of interest laws, the gravity of which is heightened by the EOM and DOH’s refusal to intervene to stop Ringling’s violations of D.C. animal care and husbandry laws for two consecutive years,” says the complaint.

We’ve reached out the Department of Health to check on when inspectors were sent to the circus, and we’ll update when we hear back. Gray’s spokesman told DeBonis that there was no conflict of interest since the tickets weren’t handled by the Department of Health.

20120328133249611