{"id":224551,"date":"2022-08-03T12:33:32","date_gmt":"2022-08-03T17:33:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=224551"},"modified":"2022-08-03T14:37:57","modified_gmt":"2022-08-03T19:37:57","slug":"big-cats-scratched-by-downtown-las-vegas-venue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/big-cats-scratched-by-downtown-las-vegas-venue\/","title":{"rendered":"Downtown Las Vegas Venue Scratches Plans For Big Cats Show, Citing Animal Rights Protests"},"content":{"rendered":"

A downtown Las Vegas venue has canceled the “Dirk Arthur\u2019s Wild Magic” big-cat show before it ever opened.<\/p>\n

\"Magician
Magician Dirk Arthur performs with a snow leopard in this undated photo from his website. Arthur had planned to debut a new show featuring live animals, but the venue owner canceled the show plans, citing concerns over animal welfare. (Image: dirkarthurmagic.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ken Henderson, owner of Notoriety Live at Fremont Street\u2019s Neonopolis, told KVVU-TV he received hundreds of protest e-mails responding to the initial wave of publicity last week. They convinced him to pull the plug and never consider hiring another animal act again.<\/p>\n

It isn\u2019t something [the animals] can say, \u2018I like to do this,\u2019 and I think that\u2019s where you\u2019re never going to win the argument,\u201d<\/strong> Henderson said. \u201cI hear a different side of this now, and it makes me look at animals in shows different.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Henderson said his invitation for Arthur to perform at his 245-seat theater still stands, but only sans his animals, which live with him on a ranch outside of Las Vegas. As of Tuesday night, Henderson said, the magician has not responded.<\/p>\n

Arthur performed without his big cats during his last run on a Las Vegas stage, a residency at the Westgate for five months in 2017 and 2018. Arthur blamed space limitations at the time, though he had previously performed in smaller showrooms.<\/p>\n

Animal Rights Activists Relieved<\/h2>\n

Annoula Wylderich, founder of the Las Vegas-based non-government organization Animal Protection Affiliates, celebrated Henderson’s decision not to present Dirk Arthur’s big-cat show.<\/p>\n

“The announcement about Dirk Arthur\u2019s pending show with his performing cats came as quite a surprise, given what we know about these exotic animals and the fact that a majority of entertainers who once used them no longer do so. Wild animals belong in the wild, not in entertainment or someone\u2019s backyard,” she told Casino.org.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Animal shows have slowly fallen out of favor because of a cultural shift toward animal welfare and conservation. The pace of that cultural shift was hastened in 2003 when Roy Horn was mauled on stage by a white tiger 13 years into the run of Siegfried & Roy\u2019s show at The Mirage. That ended the once-popular duo\u2019s career and caused the world to question the morality of working on stage with live wild animals.<\/p>\n

Out of Favor<\/h2>\n

In 2017, that same shift closed the Ringling Brothers Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, a staple of children\u2019s entertainment since 1871. (The circus announced plans to return in 2023 without animals.)<\/p>\n

\n

Another magician, Jay Owenhouse, has been trying to launch a show featuring three tigers in a five-story tent in Las Vegas since at least 2020. Though a location behind Mandalay Bay was approved by county commissioners, that plan was aborted when the land fell into foreclosure.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

In January 2022, Owenhouse withdrew a second request to locate his show behind the Sahara. That’s after he reportedly learned that county staff members were against it.<\/p>\n

“Dirk Arthur’s Wild Magic” debuted in 1997 in \u201cJubilee\u201d at Bally\u2019s, then jumped to the Silverton, Plaza, Tropicana, O\u2019Sheas, Harrah\u2019s in Reno and Laughlin, and the Riviera a few months before that hotel closed in 2015.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A downtown Las Vegas venue has canceled the “Dirk Arthur\u2019s Wild Magic” big-cat show before it ever opened. Ken Henderson, owner of Notoriety Live at Fremont Street\u2019s Neonopolis, told KVVU-TV he received hundreds of protest e-mails responding to the initial wave of publicity last week. They convinced him to pull the plug and never consider […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":224566,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3313,81886],"tags":[82098,82097,82100,82160,82159],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDowntown Las Vegas Venue Scratches Plans For Big Cats Show, Citing Animal Rights Protests - Casino.org<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A downtown Las Vegas venue has canceled the "Dirk Arthur\u2019s Wild Magic" big-cat show before it ever opened. 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