The Kosair Shrine Circus is an annual Shrine circus held in Louisville, Kentucky, done for the Kosair Charities of the Oasis of Louisville Kosair Shrine, a group of Freemasonry that stress fun and fellowship.
Since 1956, the circus has a perfect safety record.
On February 7, 2006, the Humane Society of the United States issued a press statement calling for a boycott of the circus as it came to Louisville, due to the Kosair Shrine Circus offering elephant rides to visiting patrons. In December 2005 the Louisville Metro Council voted to allow the elephant rides to take place.
Famous quotes containing the words shrine and/or circus:
“The United Nations cannot do anything, and never could; it is not an animate entity or agent. It is a place, a stage, a forum and a shrine ... a place to which powerful people can repair when they are fearful about the course on which their own rhetoric seems to be propelling them.”
—Conor Cruise O’Brien (b. 1917)
“The way to go to the circus, however, is with someone who has seen perhaps one theatrical performance before in his life and that in the High School hall.... The scales of sophistication are struck from your eyes and you see in the circus a gathering of men and women who are able to do things as a matter of course which you couldn’t do if your life depended on it.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)