“Tiger Lady” Wild for Animals

One thing’s for certain: Christina Cho knows how to give impact to her statement.

Cho stripped down to her tiger-striped bottom Friday in Anaheim to protest what she says is the poor treatment of circus animals. She definitely grabbed people’s attention.

An Anaheim businessman with gold cuff links was one of them. He chuckled, got an eyeful, then noticed Cho’s sign: “Wild animals don’t belong behind bars.”

Painted like a tiger, the 26-year-old pianist from Los Angeles knelt on a mat inside a wire cage, shielding her chest with the sign.

This isn’t the first time Cho, a member of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, has disrobed for her organization. She said she has done so on at least two other occasions, once to urge Los Angeles schools to think more about vegetarianism, and again to protest the use of fur.

Friday, she dropped “trou” outside a food court at Lemon Avenue and the Center Street Promenade to protest the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, which PETA claims mistreats animals. The circus is scheduled to arrive July 28 at the Arrowhead Pond.

Ringling Bros. did not respond to calls for comment about the protest or PETA’s stance on circus animals.

“I will do anything to draw attention to the cause, whether it means showing skin or not,” said Cho, who says she has gotten negative and positive responses at her protests.

According to Lisa Franzetta, a coordinator for PETA, the organization has a year-round campaign against the circus. Tiger women have appeared across the nation, wherever the circus performs.

“Obviously it’s meant to be eye-catching,” Franzetta said, standing over Cho’s cage and worrying aloud that this “Tiger Lady” was getting too hot. “But hopefully people will see us out here and consider what it’s like for real animals to be confined in cages for most of the day and forced to perform.”

Three Anaheim police officers were called to monitor the protest, but seeing that no laws were broken -- Cho was indeed decently covered -- they left after handing out their cards.

Nude protests are being resurrected from the 1960s and ‘70s, those involved say. Members of the Venice-based Code Pink, a female-driven activism organization, bared their bodies in front of Congress last year to protest the Iraq war. In Marin County, members of the nude protest organization Baring Witness staged an antiwar protest in which they spelled “PEACE” in the buff on a beach.

“I guess [nude protests have] been going on since [Lady Godiva] rode the horse through the square,” said Jodie Evans, co-founder of Code Pink. She said “visual activism” is effective because it startles people into paying attention.

On Friday, reactions were negative and positive, lecherous and disinterested.

Four women strategically placed themselves behind a palm tree, then pointedly talked about other things while eating lunch.

Sisters Christine and Melody Yeh, who work at their father’s sandwich shop in the food court, applauded the protest but not the prurient aspect of it.

“People are calling their friends on their cell phones saying, ‘Hey, did you see the naked lady?’ ” said Christine Yeh, 20.

“Yeah, but not mentioning the circus or her protest,” replied Melody Yeh, 13.

Tina Del Villar, who works at nearby SBC, yelled at Cho to “get a real job.”

But Leslie, the cuff-linked businessman who asked that his full name not be used, was delighted. “I think we should have more thongs in the world to awaken our consciousness.”

“Are you saying sex sells?” his colleague asked.

“Absolutely,” Leslie said with a grin. “If it was just a table sitting out here, you would have walked by.... This is what the American revolution was all about: freedom of speech.”