Drivers need to beware of elephants, tigers, zebras, horses and dogs as the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus animals parade 5 miles Sept. 2 from Renton to the ShoWare Center in downtown Kent.<\/p>\n
The exact time of the parade has yet to be determined and might not be known up until a half-hour before the march starts as Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway officials determine the best time for the mile-long circus train to park to unload the animals.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now our window is 9 a.m. to noon, but it could be before or after that,\u201d said Kent Police Lt. Rafael Padilla, who will help oversee the police escort of the circus animals, in a phone interview Wednesday. \u201cWe could know three hours before or a half-hour before. We\u2019re on standby for that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The circus performs Sept. 3-7 at the ShoWare Center.<\/p>\n
Circus officials will unload the animals near Oaksdale Avenue Southwest and Southwest 41st Avenue in Renton.<\/p>\n
From there, the animals head south on 80th Avenue South to South 196th Street; west on 196th to West Valley Highway; south on West Valley to South 228th Street; east on 228th to Fourth Avenue (also known as 76th Avenue South); south on Fourth to Cloudy Street; west on Cloudy to the arena\u2019s back entrance.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe think it will take well over an hour,\u201d Padilla said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to try to minimize the impact on traffic.\u201d<\/p>\n
Padilla expects the biggest traffic backups along the West Valley Highway. Police will close the southbound lanes between 196th and 228th for about 30 minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this time, we\u2019ll only close the southbound lanes and the northbound lanes will move freely,\u201d Padilla said.<\/p>\n
Eleven elephants, 13 tigers, 10 horses, four miniature horses, five zebras and 33 dogs are expected to be in the parade.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are at the mercy of the train system, so we don\u2019t know much about the final parade logistics until the afternoon before or sometimes the morning of the parade,\u201d wrote Jennifer Rice, a circus promoter, in an e-mail Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Rice noted that residents shouldn\u2019t expect the traditional parade where people line the streets and set up chairs.<\/p>\n
\u201cDedicated fans who wait around will definitely see something,\u201d Rice wrote. \u201cBut as a mom myself, I would not promise my kids they\u2019ll see elephants walking down the street at a particular time because it could be a long wait for a young child.\u201d<\/p>\n
Police will keep an eye out along the parade route for any protest groups that oppose the circus because of alleged abuse of animals.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t know of any that will be at the walk,\u201d Padilla said of the protest groups.<\/p>\n
Representatives from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the Northwest Animals Rights Watch and the Progressive Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) have registered with the city to protest in front of the ShoWare Center during the circus shows Sept. 3-7, Padilla said.<\/p>\n
About a dozen police officers, including a couple from Renton and Des Moines, will escort the animals through town. That total includes eight motorcycle officers.<\/p>\n
The cost of the officers will come out of the regular police budget.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s all on-duty staff so that will minimize any overtime,\u201d Padilla said.<\/p>\n
Eight circus shows are scheduled at the ShoWare, including 7:30 p.m. Sept. 3-4; 11:30 a.m., 3:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Sept. 5; 1 and 5 p.m. Sept. 6; and 1 p.m. Sept. 7, which also is Labor Day.<\/p>\n
Tickets are $75 for celebrity seats, $45 for front row, $30 for VIP, $20 for lower level and $15 for upper level.<\/p>\n
For ticket information, go to www.showarecenter.com, call 253-856-6999 or visit the ShoWare Center box office, 625 W. James St.<\/p>\n
The Kent Reporter will post information about the parade time when it becomes available at www.kentreporter.com.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
CIRCUS TIME<\/p>\n
What: Ringling Bros. circus parade<\/p>\n
When: Sept. 2, time to be determined, but it could be between 9 a.m. and noon.<\/p>\n
Where: Renton to ShoWare Center via 80th Avenue South, South 196th Street, West Valley Highway, South 228th Street, Fourth Avenue and Cloudy Street<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Drivers need to beware of elephants, tigers, zebras, horses and dogs as the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus animals parade 5 miles Sept. 2 from Renton to the ShoWare Center in downtown Kent. The exact time of the parade has yet to be determined and might not be known up until a half-hour […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":212,"featured_media":5578,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-11923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11923"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/212"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11923"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=11923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}