The Ethical Treatment Of Circus Animals

and Barnum & Bailey Circus—North America’s longest-running animal- circus—is finally packing up and leaving town, never to return.” Now some of us may really enjoy circus’s, don’t actually know the scary truth behind them. We don’t want to think that those animals are in harm, or that they are being treated cruelly. We want to think of them as fun, entertaining, enjoyable, breathtaking, mind-blowing stunts that the normal person couldn’t, or wouldn’t even think about doing.

However, recently part of the world had been shocked with the video footage of animals cruelty in an infamous circus. This had arisen a controversy of whether we should use animals in circus or not. Little of us knew what exactly went behind the circus and how the animals were trained, despite the fact that they did give the best entertainment to mankind.

Imagine you are stolen from your family at a young age, forced. Forced to perform routines, and you can not understand why, when you mess up or refuse to perform, you are punished with lacerations or starvation. No one responsible for you cares about your health and will do whatever they can to put as little effort and resources into you. This is the life for many animals forced to participate in circuses. Circus animals, such as elephants, big cats, camels, or bears, live in conditions no human would want to experience. Traveling in small cages, being deprived of experiencing a “natural” life, being forced to perform routines, these are all things circus animals have to go through. A circus is no place for an animal, especially when forced

In the article “PETA urges L.A. to ban all wild animals from circus performances”, Alexia Fernandez highlights the speed with which animal activists go in order to free wild animals from being used in circuses. According to the spokesman for the Ringling Bros, after L.A. “banned circuses from using bullhooks to manage elephants” in 2014, PETA activists demanded that circuses remove wild animals from their performances and Barnum & Bailey Circus begged to differ by arguing that animals in their facilities are taken good care of and are not mistreated (Fernandez, 2016). In conclusion, both sides of the arguments believe that neither is misinformed.

Think about how we will look back on our cruel forms of entertainment in the future. Will we be proud of the way we treated these great animals, with abuse as neglect? Today we turn our heads away from reality and what happens behind the scenes of animal entertainment. However, we can’t turn our heads forever. Around the world, there is so much more to animal entertainment than what meets the eye. These animals have been torn away from their beautiful, natural homes and brought to a prison of concrete. In these prisons, they are beaten, starved and tortured all for our money and entertainment. These animals lives should not be taken from them for us. Our money and happiness should not be worth these animal’s lives. Circus, theme park and zoo animals all suffer from aggression towards trainers, mental disabilities and physical injuries. These animals should not have to suffer any longer.

Most people go to zoos with the expectation of a happy family and enjoying a day staring at wild animals that we do not see very often except of a screen. They see zoos as a place to experience something different and to take their children to. However, few people know of the mistreatment and unfit conditions the animals are forced into. On the contrary to popular belief, there are many zoos that care so little for the health of the animals the zoos are actually the reason the animals become ill. For the truth is that animals in zoos are mistreated, neglected, and even abused because of the awful situations they are in. In this essay, then, we will go over the excruciating conditions and the abuse these animals face everyday of their lives

In the last ten months alone, a prominent animal welfare group called PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) has released over seventeen videos on Facebook speaking out against circuses. The most popular of these activist’s videos has been viewed by over 5.5 million people. Animal welfare groups seem mostly concerned with the natural inclination of wildlife. When describing the circus, almost every animal activist group has at some point brought up just how unnatural the behaviors required for performance animals to display appears, when they are entertaining an audience in a show. Niedrich from Michigan State University’s Law department has cited in her article the behaviors of tigers who are naturally fearful of fire jumping through burning hoops, and elephants, the largest land mammal in the world, balancing on tiny pedestals, as examples of unnatural behaviors. This implies that activists like Niedrich define unnatural as; behaviors displayed by animals that goes against wild instincts, or behaviors observed in free roaming animals that lack human involvement. Niedrich specifically stated

The article “Animal Activists Finally Have Something To Applaud At Ringling Bros. Circus: Its Closure”, by Amy B. Wang and published by The Washington Post is about Ringling Brothers and Bailey Circus coming to an end. It shows that animal rights groups have strong emotions towards abusing animals for entertainment. Shortly after Feld Entertainment (A production company and owner of Ringling Brothers and Bailey Circus) stopped using elephants but shortly after Ringling Brothers announced their permanent leave from the circus.

Animals are used for entertainment, “Animals aren’t actors, spectacles to imprison and gawk at, or circus clowns. Yet thousands of these animals are forced to

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 drapes. The sweet, endearing smell of fresh cotton candy and popcorn fills the air with excitement. When the show has reached the grand finale and has come to an end, a trainer arrives with a bull hook and thrusts it into the elephant’s side. Bloody wounds are all over its body from the mistreatment of the circus industry. 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. 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.

The smell of cotton candy and popcorn in the air and screams of happy children filling your ears. You see elephants, tigers and a whole variety of exotic animals performing tricks to stun the audience. However, as the circus packs up for the next city, many people are blindsided to what happens behind the scenes. Some argue that circuses are fun and lighthearted. However, the sad truth is that the poor animals you just saw perform a magnificent show, are being held in a unjustful state of captivity. Circuses can cause damage to animals, being kept in cages can cause mental problems, and animals are forced to do their unusual activity. Therefore, circuses are not good.

“When I look at animals held captive I think of slavery. Animals in circuses represent the domination and oppression we have fought against for so long. They wear the same chains and shackles.” The United States Animal Welfare has standards of care. When looking at the major circuses, they have all been cited for violating the standards. Animals feel just as much, if not more emotions and humans. Circuses should be eliminated completely because of the animals dangerous living conditions, the long term damage it does to the animals, and the mammals could pose a potential threat to the spectators.

Animals being caged, hit, poked, and prodded is a normal part of circus and zoo life. Wild animals are not meant to be a form of entertainment, and should not be our captives unless necessary for their health. P.T. Barnum opened what became arguably one of the most controversial circuses in modern times in 1871, and three years later, America’s first zoo followed. In the past one hundred years, very few things have changed in the way animals in such establishments are treated and trained.

Training is another concern. Physical punishment has long been the standard training method for animals in circuses. These methods are simply cruel. They include the use of electric prods, whips, and even some animals especially large cats, have their teeth removed. Bears balancing on balls, apes riding motorcycles, elephants standing on two legs are acts that are physically uncomfortable and behaviorally unnatural. Such “performances” do not teach audiences about how animals behave under normal circumstances. Instead, they are often portrayed as ferocious and stupid.

Animals have been a main focus in circus performances around the world for many centuries; however, in recent history, there have been far more regulations put on the use of these creatures, stemming mainly from how they are treated by both their trainers and the circus as a whole. Whether it be on the federal or local and state-level, there has been a definite increase in the questionable legality of America’s circus industry due to the neglect and abuse of the participating animals, courts’ decisions highlighting the true importance of the issue. These rulings make one ask the question: What types of regulations could be put in place in all circuses to ensure that the animals involved are not abused in the process? In the end, many