![]() ![]() Trainers drug some animals to make them “manageable” and surgically remove the teeth and claws of others. The AWA allows the use of bullhooks, whips, electrical shock prods, or other devices by circus trainers. Animals are beaten, shocked, and whipped to make them perform-over and over again-tricks that make no sense to them. Physical punishment has always been the standard training method for animals in circuses. ![]() These “performances” teach audiences nothing about how animals behave under normal circumstances. The whips, tight collars, muzzles, electric prods, bullhooks, and other tools used during circus acts are reminders that the animals are being forced to perform. The tricks that animals are forced to perform-such as when bears balance on balls, apes ride motorcycles, and elephants stand on two legs-are physically uncomfortable and behaviorally unnatural. These effects are often indicated by unnatural forms of behavior such as repeated head-bobbing, swaying, and pacing. ![]() Such interminable confinement has harmful physical and psychological effects on animals. Robert Sapolsky, a research associate with the Institute of Primate Research in Kenya, said, “raining most baboons to do tricks of the sort displayed is not trivial … it is highly likely that it required considerable amounts of punishment and intimidation.” 1ĭuring the off-season, animals used in circuses may be housed in traveling crates or barn stalls- some are even kept in trucks. After watching video footage of baboons in a traveling circus called “Baboon Lagoon,” Dr. Like all animals used in entertainment, primates do not perform unless they are forced to-often by inflicting beatings and imposing solitary confinement. Primates are highly social, intelligent, and caring animals who suffer when deprived of companionship. The lives of baboons, chimpanzees, and other primates used in circuses are a far cry from those of their wild relatives, who live in large, close-knit communities and travel together for miles each day across forests, savannahs, and hills. The minimum requirements of the federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA) are routinely ignored. Elephants are kept in leg shackles that prevent them from taking more than one step in any direction. Most animals are allowed out of their cages only during the short periods when they must perform. ![]() The animals, most of whom are quite large and naturally active, are forced to spend most of their lives in the cramped, barren cages and trailers used to transport them, where they have only enough room to stand and turn around. Circuses would quickly lose their appeal if more people knew about the cruel methods used to train the animals as well as the cramped confinement, unacceptable travel conditions, and poor treatment that they endure-not to mention what happens to them when they “retire.”īecause circuses are constantly traveling from city to city, animals’ access to basic necessities such as food, water, and veterinary care is often inadequate. Colorful pageantry disguises the fact that animals used in circuses are captives who are forced-under threat of punishment-to perform confusing, uncomfortable, repetitious, and often painful acts. Although some children dream of running away to join the circus, it is a safe bet that most animals forced to perform in circuses dream of running away from the circus. ![]()
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