THE BIG LIE BEHIND THE BIG TOP

The circus is in town but before you go……

Do you realise what you are condoning and supporting by buying a ticket to the circus?

Please educate yourself by reading the next few pages explaining many of the myths that circuses want you to believe.

MYTH #1: Training methods are humane and gentle

THE FACTS:

·         What keeps an elephant under control lies in the elephant’s training. The training can be severe as trainers often resort to brutal methods to maintain a position of dominance by using bullhooks (ankus), whips, sticks, electric prods, clubs and other tools that intentionally cause pain in order to force animals to perform.

·          After a two-day stakeout of a local SA circus, Public Watch built up a formidable body of film and photographic evidence of circus animal abuse and cruelty.

·         Numerous former circus employees have come forward and described violent beatings as well as the routine abuse of elephants, horses, camels, and zebras: "Hooking, hitting. I saw elephants hit. I saw elephants bleed. I saw what I call systematic daily abuse," -barn keeper Tom Rider, who worked for the circus from 1997 to 1999

·         Remember: all training takes place behind closed doors. You don't see it, and neither do organisations such as the NSPCA. When you see animals performing in the circus, you are seeing only what the circus wants you to see.

MYTH #2: The animals physical needs are met in circuses

THE FACTS:

·         Due to the schedules of the travelling circus, circus animals are confined to boxcars and trailers for days at a time in extremely hot and cold weather.

·         Animals are confined to cramped and filthy cages in which they eat, drink, sleep, defecate, and urinate—all in the same place.

·         Large animals like elephants, lions and tigers need a huge amount of space to be able to move around. In a circus are generally shut up or tethered most of the day

·         Lions and tigers are shut in their beast wagons for over 90% of the time.

·         The RSPCA's greatest concern is the disparity between the conditions imposed on wild animals by circus life and the environment that these animals need for their well-being. Life in the wild cannot be replicated on the back of transportation trucks or at circus sites around the country.

MYTH #3: The animals emotional needs are met in circuses

THE FACTS:

·         Circus animals are denied the right to socialise with their own kind, to be part of a family herd and to bathe and forage for food or express the range of behaviours that are natural for them.

·         Transporting them from site to site and exposing them to abnormal social groups and noisy conditions all add up to a recipe for poor animal welfare.

MYTH #4: Circuses serve wild animal species by educating children and adults

THE FACTS:

·         Watching wild animals perform unnatural tricks outside their natural habitats doesn't teach people anything about WILDlife or the animals natural behaviour.

·         We can learn far more from the excellent "on the spot" TV programmes which do not interfere with animals in the wild.

“When [circuses] portray animals as freaks and curiosities, devoid of context or dignity, circuses are perpetuating outdated attitudes. Wild animals in the circus are reduced to mere caricatures of their kind, exhibited just for financial gain. In this way, they corrupt our children, promoting the notion that exploitation and degradation is acceptable, even brave or funny.” - David Hancocks, former director of the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle

MYTH #5: Laws protect animals in circuses

THE FACTS:

·         The current laws in our country are far from ideal and Brenda Santon, manager of the NSPCA's wildlife unit expresses the NSPCA’s dissatisfaction at the stance that has been taken by the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism regarding the provisions for captive elephants under the draft Norms and Standards for the management of elephants.

·         Even with the best laws in the world, those laws mean nothing without having the infrastructure to enforce them and in circumstances of constant travelling and temporary accommodation, the enforcement of regulations will always be compromised. No other working animals spend such a long time, normally at least eight months, in temporary mobile accommodation, thus making animal transport regulations difficult for police and the NSPCA to enforce.

MYTH #6: Animals in circuses have an extended life-expectancy:

THE FACTS:

·         Maiza is an ex-circus tiger from Bolivia. She could have lived till 40 in the wild, where the average life span of a lion is double that in captivity but she is frail and nearly blind after 18 years in the circus, jumping through flaming hoops and performing at the point of trainer's whip.

·         Are we really going to argue “quantity over quality” of years? Would you agree to being locked up in a small cage for your entire life if it meant you could live a little longer?

MYTH #7: It is fine for animals born in captivity

THE FACTS:

·         Wild animals are not domesticated to co-exist in a symbiotic relationship with people; they will not readily volunteer to please people by performing meaningless, repetitive routines in large noisy arenas.

·         Regardless of the number of generations that wild animals have been in captivity, captive-born wild animals have not lost their natural instinct to socialise and need to roam freely. Wild circus animals often show their distress through abnormal behaviour, also known as displacement activity. This can take the form of constant swaying, bobbing, weaving or pacing up and down.

MYTH #8: The circus is safe fun for the whole family

THE FACTS:

·         Frustrated by years of beatings, bullhooks, and shackles, some animals snap. And when a wild animal rebels against a trainer's physical dominance, trainers cannot protect themselves, let alone the public.

·         Since 1990 elephants in performance situations have caused 30 human deaths and over 100 injuries worldwide. Since 1990 captive big cats have been responsible for 75 human attacks, and about one-third resulted in fatal injuries. (Statistics compiled by API)

MYTH #9: Circus animals have nowhere else to go

THE FACTS:

·         There are various wildlife sanctuaries across the country that specialize in the peaceful retirement and rehabilitation of such animals and reintroducing them into the wild when possible.

·         Lawrence Anthony (Author of ‘The Elephant Whisperer’, winner of the Earth Day medal presented at the United Nations and founder of the Earth Organization) is renowned for the conservation and rehabilitation of elephants and strongly objects to elephants in circuses. 

MYTH #10: Activist want to close circuses down and ban this traditional entertainment completely

THE FACTS:

·         This is not a means to take away from the talented trapeze artists, jugglers, clowns, tightrope walkers, and acrobats--nor is it meant to make a reduction in the delectation and amusement of circuses.

·          Some of the best circus acts in the world have not one single animal act,

·         The Latest Shows on Earth—Cirque du Soleil, the New Pickle Family Circus, Cirque Éloize, and others—are exciting and innovative circuses that dazzle audiences without animal acts and are highly popular.

·         Let’s rather support shows without wild animals and watch the wonder of these animals in their natural environment captured on camera by sensitive and respected wildlife photographers.

"The idea that it is funny to see wild animals coerced into acting like clumsy humans, or thrilling to see powerful beasts reduced to cringing cowards by a whipcracking trainer is primitive and medieval. It stems from the old idea that we are superior to other species and have the right to hold dominion over them." - Dr. Desmond Morris, anthropologist, animal behaviourist, author

Other strange arguments

“Well, at least circus animals are not in the wild being poached.”

Say WHAT? Well then perhaps we should all be locking our kids up in rooms/cages so cramped they are unable to move freely and prevent them from living a natural life and playing as kids do in order to avoid the possibility that they MIGHT get stabbed at school? Would you lock your wife up in your home, beat her with sticks/rods and then simply shrug and defend it with : "Well, at least I don't let her walk outside to be raped!"?

“But my kids were so looking forward to it. I can’t disappoint them.”

Huh? So maybe next time your kids ask if they can swim in a crocodile infested river you should allow THAT too in order not to disappoint them. Seriously! Isn’t handling disappointments part of growing up and realising you can’t always do whatever you please?

I’m sure many children will not even WANT to go to the circus once parents have reasoned with- and educated their children on WHY they do not condone watching wild animals being forced to jump through hoops. Surely parents would rather teach their children to think beyond just their own needs and thereby reinforce lessons of compassion and empathy.

“So what. They are animals. Not humans!”

 Ironically it is usually these very people who regard empathy and compassion as traits that set us apart from animals.

Animals are also sentient beings that eat, sleep and breathe. They have sexual intercourse (some even orgasm), reproduce and care for their young for whom they will risk their lives. They form close bonds with one another, interact, play and have defined social structures. They have distinct personalities which highlight individual identity and experience a wider range of emotions …. So, how different are we really?

Please read: Six 'uniquely' human traits now found in animals

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13860-six-uniquely-human-traits-now-found-in-animals-.html

Even if certain people regard the human race a SUPERIOR to animals – it must still be noted that most religions of the world (Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam) all clearly promote responsible custodianship of animals and denounce cruelty of any form.

Lawrence Anthony says: "Our inability to think beyond ourselves or to be able to co-habit with other life forms in what is patently a massive collaborative quest for survival, is surely a malady that pervades the human soul" he goes on: "As individuals we are responsible for more than just ourselves and our own kind. There is more to life than just this. We must each one of us also bring the natural world back into proper perspective in our lives, and realize that doing so is not some lofty ideal, but a vital part of our personal survival."

“Compassion, in which all ethics must take root, can only attain its full breadth and depth if it embraces all living creatures and does not limit itself to mankind.” - Carina Kennard