Denver ? Heather Herman doesn’t hate the circus. She has no problem with clowns or the men on the flying trapeze, but she draws the line at leaping lions and prancing pachyderms.

And if she has her way, the circus won’t be coming to town.

The high school freshman gathered enough signatures last month to put a question on Denver’s Aug. 10 ballot asking residents to ban performances by exotic animals.

“I believe animals do not belong in the circus, that they shouldn’t perform, shouldn’t have clothes put on them or have people riding on them,” said Sherman, 15. “To make animals perform you train them, and to train them you must break them, which requires physical force.”

Such talk has alarmed Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, which has been coming to Denver since 1919 and spends two weeks a year in the city.

Circus officials enlisted Blinky the Clown, a local television personality and longtime ringmaster, to help fend off the assault.

“I think the whole thing is ridiculous,” said Blinky, also known as Russell Scott, 82. “I never saw anyone train an animal by beating it. Now, I won’t stand here and say no one has ever hit an animal. Maybe some idiot hit a zebra with a board once to make it move or something, but it’s not normal.”

Residents also are mobilizing.

Ron Sanchez, 23, helped start the Save the Circus Foundation with a Web site dedicated to defeating the initiative.

Heather Herman, 15, Arvada, Colo., returns to her seat after speaking to the Denver City Council on Jan. 12. Herman, a 15-year-old high school freshman, organized volunteers and collected enough signatures to put a question on the Aug. 10 ballot asking voters to ban the performances of circus animals.

“I go to the circus every year. It’s part of Denver history,” he said. “As a kid growing up, I loved to watch the elephants … I worry about raising my kids in Denver if there is no circus.”

It’s all mind boggling to Denver City Councilman Charlie Brown.

He said residents should need at least 10,000 signatures to get something onto the ballot, rather than the current 6,000. In any case, he likes the circus, the $8 million it generates each year and the 400 jobs it provides.

“What’s the circus supposed to do?” he asked. “Leave the animals on the train?”

Feld Entertainment, which owns Ringling Bros., denied any mistreatment of animals and said they would skip Denver if the measure passed.

“People say the circus is part of American culture, but at the same time don’t we have a culture that requires us to be more humane and be more civilized?” Herman asked. “The circus should be progressing, not becoming outdated.”