Town trades circus for Tour de Fourth

The curtain has closed on Natick's annual Fourth of July big top, but the organization that sponsored the circus for almost 20 years is spinning the news this way: They have traded the human cannonball for Cannondale bikes and brought in Treks instead of tigers.

The Natick Rotary has substituted a family-oriented bicycling event, the Tour de Natick, held last weekend, for the elephant rides and cotton candy that many residents relished as a local Independence Day tradition.

Many of the 300 people who enjoyed the 6- and 25-mile bike rides were unaware that the circus has been canceled, and they expressed disappointment at the news.

But the Rotary is soft-pedaling the circus's demise. "I think this is a better community event, myself," said George Richards, who is in line to lead the Rotary in 2006. "The circus is centered on younger kids, while this [bike ride] attracts families and older kids in middle school and high school."

Richards and some other Rotarians cited years of low-key animal-rights protests as one of several factors in their decision to forgo the annual event.

"It was a combination of a lot of things," said Artie Fair, immediate past president of the Rotary. The Cole Brothers Circus, a traveling company that puts on the event, had rearranged its schedule this year, so they couldn't be in Natick over July Fourth, where several years of exceptionally hot weather had driven attendance down. Fair and others said it was simply time for something new.

"Over time, these events get stale," he said. "This is a nice change."

Frank Rizzo and Mel Willens, both longtime Rotarians, are credited with getting the circus started in the 1980s. At that time, entertainment under the big top generated fresh interest in the Rotary, which for years had held auto raffles and a penny sale as its major fund-raisers. The nonprofit group of business and community leaders sponsors many scholarships for local high school graduates and has adopted as its key goal the international push to eradicate polio.

While Rizzo said the bike event capitalizes on a current exercise fad, the arrival of trucks carrying circus performers and animals was always a big event for Natick. Many residents lined up at the high school near dawn on July Fourth to see the elephants raise the big top by pulling giant tent poles into place. Others ogled the spectacle from the town beach, where elephants munched hay a few feet from children frolicking in the sand. And the show's lithe human performers -- baring rippling muscles and doing tricks off the diving boards -- brought some excitement to the sedate spot where moms and tots wade in the water.

"There were always a few complaints" about mistreatment of animals in circuses, Rizzo acknowledged. "They're not without merit. The animals are caged, and that's not the way they were born. But it's a complicated picture. I never saw any mistreatment."

Boston animal rights activist Evelyn Kimber said she didn't need to witness animals being beaten. She said she protested the circus in Natick because she believes that wild animals shouldn't be caged and trucked around the country as entertainment. She said she played a key role in getting the circus elephants out of Natick's July 4 parade by educating town officials several years ago. She also distributed literature to circus-going families outside the tents.

"Some people were not interested, so they'd walk by and wave you off, while others took the information and read it," she said. "But others stopped in their tracks and turned around to say, 'Now I can't go in there because of this.' "

The Cole Brothers Circus has stopped using elephants in most of its shows, said spokeswoman Renee Storey, who said the animals were aging and would not be replenished with younger ones. An online publication cited expenses associated with transporting elephants as part of the company's decision. But Cole Brothers still has animal acts, including tigers, horses, dogs, and trained housecats, Storey said.

Regardless of the reasons behind the decision to end the circus tradition, there are several residents who will feel a void when no high-wire act follows Natick's July Fourth parade.