Imagine being in a circus ring watching tigers and lions leaping through blazing rings of fire, elephants standing on their heads, and monkeys riding red bicycles for a colossal crowd of screaming, cheering fans. The elephant’s exhausted, worn body is swamped with intricately designed red and orange drapes. The sweet, endearing smell of fresh cotton candy and popcorn fills the humid air with thrilling excitement. When the eccentric show has reached the grand finale and has finally come to an end, a trainer swiftly arrives with a pointy bull hook and forcefully thrusts it into the elephant’s scarred side. Bloody wounds are all over its body from the mistreatment of the circus industry and trainers. This is the life that circus animals live each and every day. The animals are mistreated on a routine basis and are crammed into small boxcars for more than three-fourths of their life, serving the public for a moment of entertainment each night in the high top. The life of a circus animal is one of pure, unending misery. The use of animals in circus shows is inhumane because they are a threat to public health, and they are mistreated when outside of the public eye.
Beginning the process of putting together a circus show takes a colossal abundance of work. First, some exotic animals must be captured and trained. The majority of circus animals are caught in the wild; the animals put in several years of service to the circuses, such as Ringling Brothers Circus and Barnum and Bailey Circus. Animals that are born into the circus business are held until the need to replace a retiring performer arises (Minutes of Entertainment, 2). To train the animals, shocking, poking, prodding, starving, and striking are used to “prevent violent and atrocious behavior”. The training instruments, such as bull hooks and electric prods, are used to utilize the animals’ senses of fear and intimidation of the trainer (Minutes of Entertainment, 1). Trainers claim to use positive reinforcement with the animals, but this statement is clearly a lie. Tapes of abuse have been collected and released to the government agencies (Last Chance for Animals, 3). Agencies are trying to boycott the circus industry; however, some circuses have boycotted using animals altogether. Once the circus is ready to hit the road and go on tour, the animals are confined to small spaces, such as boxcars, trailers, and trucks for many extensive, everlasting periods of time. Some hard-to-handle animals are drugged with sedatives so they have a greater chance of cooperating when traveling (Last Chance for Animals, 2). A record of a chimpanzee getting its teeth knocked out with a hammer has been retrieved (Last Chance for Animals, 2). “Constant travel, forced inactivity, and long hours standing on hard surfaces in their own waste leads to serious health problems and early death in captive elephants (Circus Animals, 2).” Elephants travel more than forty miles a day in the wild, but circus elephants barely travel a few steps a day. The elephants cannot nurture their young because the managers quickly separate them after birth. Circuses travel on average eleven months a year. The animals are chained in the boxcars or are transferred to holding pens until moments before they enter the performance ring. Before entering the ring, the animals are violently beaten to remind them of their training sessions and the fear and intimidation that have been ingrained into their souls (Last Chance for Animals, 1). Ringling Brothers Circus has a “retirement” farm for their circus elephants. They claim that it is safe and they are cared for; however, the farm is not open to the public eye. Gary Jacobson, the general manager of the Ringling Brother’s Retirement Farm, was filmed roping all four legs of baby elephants and stretching them to the ground to break their spirits (Last Chance for Animals, 3).
After training sessions and during the circus tours, the animals demonstrate peculiar and abnormal behaviors. Pacing, rocking, and swaying have been demonstrated among many varieties of animals at the circus, such as big cats and elephants. These unnatural behaviors represent mental, physical, and emotional distress (Last Chance for Animals, 2). Zoo animals also display abnormal fronts, as well. Circus animals have been seen biting the cages and destroying themselves because they are unhappy with their lives (Last Chance for Animals, 3). “Circus animals do not willingly stand on their heads, jump through rings of fire, or ride bicycles. The do not perform these tricks because they want to, and they do not perform like this in their natural habitats (Last Chance for Animals, 1).” The animals fear the ringmaster and are scared of what will happen if they do not do what he asks. All circus animals are forced to live a life that is far different from a life in the wild (Minutes of Entertainment, 1). There are no free-roaming, carefree feelings or actions. Elephants are “talkative” social animals and they create close ties with others, just like humans do (Last Chance for Animals, 2). Circuses claim to only enhance the performance of behaviors that occur in the wild. The audience only sees the behaviors of the animals and actions of the trainers and ringmaster during the performance, not before or after.
The potential of being mauled by a bear or catching Tuberculosis from an elephant at the circus is quite larger than you would imagine. Besides the mistreatment to circus animals, they are also a threat to public safety and health. The animals are involved in experiments for science and cross-species diseases can be passed between the performer and spectator. Since World War II, experiments involving animals has greatly increased (Thorburn, 2). With the addition of animals being killed for food and clothing, many animals are becoming endangered and are becoming extinct. Native species are endangered by human environmental factors, not because there is a difficulty reproducing (Last Chance for Animals, 3). Circuses allow a great deal of contact between the animals and the public; this makes the chance of having an accident increase dramatically. “Cross-species diseases can be passes from the animals to the public around them. Bacterial diseases, such as Tuberculosis (TB) have been reported (Minutes of Entertainment, 2).” Circus elephants are ridden, petted, and in contact with humans very often. A human strand of Tuberculosis has been found; the strand can be passed between the elephants and the handlers (Last Chance for Animals, 3). Many incidents of escapes from cheaply made restraints and cages have caused circus animals to attack the general public; this can cause a great deal of fatalities for humans, as well as the animals. Many incidents involving large felines and elephants are rarely in the news because they are seldom caught on camera, 2). The animals are driven mad and rebel in rampages that injure and kill people. The education system also has some “kinks” in it because parents do not teach their children about what happens behind the scenes at the circus. The elephants wear drapes to cover the scars from the training sessions. How many parents are going to tell their children about the mistreatment of circus animals before watching the show? Children are being taught about how the animals are forced to act, not how they act in their natural habitats (Minutes of Entertainment, 2).
Opposing views about the use of animals in the circus have faced each other in court. The circus has evolved in drastic measures. Some believe that animals should only be observed, but some give approval to the right to use animals in the circus as long as there is no violence, neglect, or cruelty towards them. The current circus has evolved from the first circus ever, the Roman Circus Maximus (Circus Animals, 1). Circus Maximus included activities such as chariot races, horse events, and wild creature displays. The Romans greatly enjoyed watching people die in agony from being mauled by lions and tigers. The lion and tiger species around the world at the heyday of the Roman Empire took a great fall. The modern circus came about in the early nineteenth century with horse acts (Circus Animals, 1). Acrobatics were added in the nineteenth century. A claim to “tame” the animals was made. Obviously the thought was false because there are accidents between the public and the animals frequently.
To ensure the safety of the animals involved in the circus, new animal protection laws have been implemented into the circus industry. Every big touring circus show is guilty for violating the new laws given by the Animal Welfare Act. The circuses do obey the new laws, but the laws are not thorough enough to cover the abuse, neglect, and mistreatment factors that the circus productions are known for. Since most circuses did not and have not complied with the new acts, some bans on circus animals have been added to some circuses in the United States, such as Barnum and Bailey and Ringling Brothers. The animal rights acts monitor the slaughtering of animals, as well as the experimentation of animals. “Falling attendance and public disillusionment have caused circuses to change the shows. New circuses, such as Cirque de Soleil, have become a new trend (Circus Animals, 2).” Circuses do not conserve endangered species and watch the population size of particular animals. Circuses pick and choose the animals the managers want to, and there is no government agency monitoring them, so they can get away with those actions (Last Chance for Animals, 1). Nevertheless, some circuses do look and monitor the population size of the animals that are involved in the show. Various circus managers claim that the animals are capable of being used for educational purposes, but the circus production is an hour of entertainment, not an educational lecture on the natural behaviors of the animals there. Poaching, hunting, deforestation, and starvation all are factors that affect the populations of animals in the wild. Circuses do not care about the natural way of life. The government does not monitor the training sessions, where most of the violence towards the animals occurs. Currently some organizations are fighting for the protection of all animals, big and small. PETA has located the tape of baby elephants getting stabbed with bull hooks. The use of bull hooks will soon end; the Los Angeles City Council is waiting for the right time to begin the ban. It is estimated to begin in 2017. “The opinions regarding animals and their rights greatly vary. To some, animals have no rights and are merely a form of property that exists only to human needs. To others, they are creatures that can be used or owned by people, but which also have feelings and are not to be subjected to needless suffering and pain (Animal Rights, 1).”
The protection of animals is a vast problem globally. Organizations are working each and every day to end the mistreatment of animals; however, the problem will still exist, but it will be at a minimum. Circus animals are routinely beaten and whipped, and it is all for a few moments of entertainment that people pay a moderate amount of money to attend. The mistreatment of circus animals is cruel, mind-blowing, and inhumane.