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                           Dan Irwin                                                                   by Loren McLeod

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I spent this weekend protesting seven performances of Ringling Brothers Circus at the Orlando Arena.

Thursday and Friday nights, three shows on Saturday and two on Sunday. It was my second year and while I was heartened at the larger number of protesters and fewer number of attendees, the asshole quotient among the latter was extremely high.

I protest a lot: circuses big and small, puppy stores, McDonalds & KFC (both scald their chickens to death) and elsewhere. I say nothing, hold a sign with a message, standing for an hour or two, and for my quiet demonstration of first amendment rights I get pummeled with verbal abuse more hideous than I received as a flamboyantly effeminate boy growing up in 70s and 80s suburban New York. I take it. I never return fire. I find people get madder when they’re unable to get a rise out of you by telling you to “Go home,” “Get a life,” “Those elephants deserve to be beat,” and, from Saturday, “Don’t look at me or I’ll kick your ass. Don’t look at me. Stop looking at me. I’ll kick your fuckin’ ass.” The guy who threatened to beat me up did so while holding his five year old son’s hand. Of course I kept looking at him, turning my entire body, and “Ringling Beats Animals” sign completely around so I could look at him for as long as I could. I said nothing, without fear, and just looked, my face expressionless.

It’s draining, more so for the volunteers who distribute leaflets.

It’s hard to know the truth about what circus animals endure and to see the deliberate ignorance or indifference. My activist friends and I take comfort in each other, and do our best to keep things light. We joke, take pictures and share snacks. I brought a Superior Mutts foster dog, Lily, to one of the protests and everyone enjoyed loving on her. We find strength and support in each other’s company…

…and we lust after Dan Irwin.

I first met Dan in the fall of 2008 when I attended a Petland protest in Altamonte Springs. Tall, adorable, sweet, funny, ballsy, committed, consistent, Dan Irwin is among the most attractive men I have ever known. Straight, he’s married to Jacqueline, a sweet young woman from Trinidad who shares all of his qualities. They attend nearly every protest, belong to a vegan dining club, have solar panels on their house that reduce their electric bills to something like ten dollars a month, and are adopting two pigs from Kindred Spirits Sanctuary in Ocala, Fla.

Dan Irwin is so delightful and such a hottie, and as ballsy as can be. He often gets on the bullhorn and lists the dozens of Ringling elephants, tigers, horses and sea lions that have died from abuse and neglect over the last twenty years, all of which are documented by the United States Department of Agriculture. Among them are baby elephants Kenny who, at three years old, suffered from rectal bleeding the day of a show, was given a quick enema and forced into the ring, later dying; Ricardo who, at one, fell off a platform, broke his legs and was killed because it was less expensive than healing him; and Benjamin who, also at one, ran into a lake at Ringling’s “conservation center” rather than get beat by his trainer, and drowned. Dan Irwin spent the weekend on the loudspeaker asking patrons whether Barak, the one year-old baby elephant the circus is currently exploiting, will also die and, if so, will be buried next to Kenny, Ricardo and Benjamin.

There’s nothing sexier than Dan Irwin’s combination of compassion, courage, integrity and good humor. Good looks help, but I’d moon over Dan if he were a hunchbacked Cyclops. Enjoy the photos in which he appears and the video, below, of him protecting a fellow protester from a crazy Liebling Family Circus employee who got in her face, poking her chest and grabbing her camera two weeks ago at the Osceola Flea Market in Kissimmee. Watch the video, join me in lusting after wonderful Dan Irwin, as superior a man as has ever taken a breath, and avoid circuses with animal acts.

For a closer look at Loren, click here. 

to contact Loren, email him at loren@vidioview.com

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