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New York. D'Agostino Shows Some Class. Drops Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus.

Back in the late 70s, when I was in my early twenties, I lived on E20th Street between First Avenue and the FDR Drive in Manhattan. For the locals, the area is still known as Stuyvesant Town. Down the block was a grocery store called D'Agostino. For all I know, it could still be there but there are many branches in the city. It was a time when I counted every penny, couldn't afford to eat out, made my lunch and dinner from the stuff I bought from D'Agostino, saving money by shopping there. That went on for three years until I moved to Queens. So, I was all ears when I heard something about this chain of groceries in the news, something relating to animal welfare at that, something good.

Well, as it turned out, D'Agostino became the latest business establishment to drop their partnership with that God awful, inhumane, saddest show on Earth, Ringling Bros. Barnum and Bailey Circus. Unaware of the hideous imprisonment and forced labor of animals practiced by the circus, D'Agostino offered their patrons discounted tickets to the show. That's okay because we can't expect every business out there to be on the ball when it comes to animal welfare. The great thing is that D'Agostino dropped the promotion after PETA enlightened them about the plight of the Asian elephants, their chaining for long hours, the loneliness, the forced separation from their children, the bullhooking, the temperature extremes, and other forms of deprivation and cruelty that Ringling believes is acceptable. My old lifeline, D'Agostino has joined Denny's, Liz Claiborne, Lukoil, MasterCard, and Sears, Roebuck and Co. in ending their sponsorship of Ringling. Good job, D'Agostino.

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