Circuses are no fun for animals
Circuses degrade animals as there is no show unless the animal is frightened or in pain. Animals endure punishment during training and are subjected to physical and emotional hardships during transportation.
They are forced to travel thousands of miles each year, often in extreme heat or cold, with dogs living in cramped cages and elephants chained. To the circus industry, animals are merely stock in trade, to be replaced when they are used up.
It is often seen that birds are made to “perform” in a circus; birds who naturally fly are often forced to perform unnatural tricks, such as walking on tightropes, cycling, ’speaking’ and sitting on seesaws.
Typically they are housed in cages so small that they cannot stretch their wings or even fly about a bit. In order to ensure that macaws do not fly away during their performance, handlers clip the birds’ wings.
Once the feathers are cut, it is rare that the birds can fly. Clipping the birds’ wings can cause severe injury, and if the clipping is not done accurately, there is also the risk that the bird might bleed to death.
Medical care is rarely – if ever –provided; if birds and animals do receive veterinary care, it is only after they have gotten sick, not as a preventative measure.
Macaws are beautiful, brilliantly colored members of the parrot family. They are intelligent, social birds who often gather in flocks of 10 to 30 individuals. Macaws vocalize to communicate within the flock, mark territory, and identify one another.
Some species can even mimic human speech. This is the main reason why they are made to speak in circuses. Eight of the sixteen species of macaws are classified as endangered and all populations of macaws are declining.
Its not just these birds who suffer in circuses. 2 years ago, 21 animals belonging to the infamous Russian Circus died a horrific death when they burnt to death in Mumbai. The dogs and cats were confined to cages and could not escape from these when their tents caught fire.
The sea lions were also similarly burnt to death. When their bodies were found, the dogs had died clenching the bars of the cages with their teeth in an effort to get away. Till date, the people behind their deaths are still free.
According to a 1998 Central Government notification, tigers, lions, monkeys, panthers and bears can no longer be used in circuses. Over 50 lions and tigers have been rescued and sent to rescue centers by PETA and the Central Zoo Authority as a result of this notification.
Yet the government of India is now trying to overthrow the ban and allow some of the animals to perform again! How shocking is that? Instead of standing up for animals, they are working to ensure that animals suffer again.
The Performing Animals Rules are currently being reviewed by a committee headed by the Secretary, Animal Welfare, Government of India and it is a foregone conclusion that they will not take the side of the animals.
In a circus, elephants are confined 95 percent of their lives and tigers used to be kept in cages for up to 22 hours out of the day, day in and day out.
Animal circuses are not entertainment. Tigers don’t enjoy being whipped, and elephants aren’t having fun when they’re being pulled along with bull hooks (ankus).
Animals used in circuses are kept in traveling crates or barn stalls; some are even kept in trucks. Such unrelieved physical confinement has very harmful physical and psychological effects on animals.
These effects are often indicated by unnatural behaviors such as repeated head-bobbing, swaying, and pacing.
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