That's right, kids, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus is a-coming to town, and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) dominatrix Christina Cho wanted to boycott the big top in style.

This isn't the first time PETA activists have stripped naked and gyrated in public places to save the elephants, whales, minks, roaches, etc.; peeps have been pulling these stunts for years. This particular scene was one of mild amusement and a whole lotta double takes. Horns honked at green lights. Street cleaners rolled by in slow motion. Tourists ogled the big-city debauchery, while a girl in rhinestone-studded jeans squealed "Oh mah God!" ad nauseum into a pay phone. A distracted bicyclist nearly swerved under a SEPTA bus, and a homeless man offered to carry an anti-circus sign.

I, for one, parked myself in a row of burly construction workers eating ham sandwiches out of Igloo coolers. In between bites, they called everyone they knew: "Hey, Marty! So I'm down here, right, at Ninth and Market, just eating my lunch, right, and you wouldn't believe it …"

Suits, blingers and teens carrying a Mexican flag snapped photos with their cell phones. You'd think no one had ever seen a chick in a coochie skirt struttin' it at the Gallery Mall.

But not everyone was thrilled.

A giant woman with kids fanning in every direction stopped dead in her tracks and hollered, "What's a buncha hookers standing around the corner in broad daylight for? It's 12 o'clock!" An older gent with pants up to his armpits shook his fist and muttered something about burning in hell for exposing children to the evils of, um, pleather.

Is this the future of protest? Can riding crops and stripper platforms really effect social change? Or does Cho just come off as a Cancun tittie girl with a soft spot for elephants?

PETA's boob-centric propaganda has long been criticized as objectifying and exploitative. Cho is a volunteer, of course, and defends the campaign as "quirky" and "eye-catching." She insists that putting the T and A in PETA is the only way to compete for attention in a sex-saturated society. And despite the naysayers, she's thrilled to have unloaded 1,000 leaflets and 50 DVDs featuring exclusive behind-the-scenes circus beatings.

I ask Cho if the gimmick inadvertently decriminalizes S&M, but it turns out she isn't a real dominatrix. (Bet you didn't see that coming.) Rather, she's a classically trained pianist who lives in L.A. and believes any publicity is good publicity when it comes to stamping out animal cruelty.

I can't help but wonder if a little faux leather on a public lunch hour goes a long way on the road to enlightenment.

Looking around at my companions—burly construction workers who don't think twice about eating ham sandwiches at an animal rights demonstration—I get my answer.

Questions? Comments? Would you rather go naked than wear fur? E-mail ashlea.halpern@citypaper.net. No phone calls.