animal abuse photos: Circus Animal Abuse Facts

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Circus Animal Abuse Facts Biography
How many times have people witnessed or heard about animal cruelty? Circuses are one of the many places where animals are treated poorly. One of the many endangered species that are forced to 'join' the circus is the largest land mammal, the elephant. Wild animals, such as the elephant, are taken from their natural habitat to perform uncomfortable tricks for human entertainment. They suffer from the drastic changes in climate, the inappropriate shelters and transportation conditions, and the countless beatings. There needs to be a greater respect for animals, not dominance over animals.
The Roman Empire was a time period of proving man's superiority. Blatant cruelty was found in their circuses. In 70 amphitheaters, elephants, hippopotamuses, rhinoceroses, crocodiles, giraffes, lions, tigers, bears, deer and more were butchered just for the fun of it. 8 thousand animals were killed on the first two days of the opening of the Coliseum in Rome itself. This was only a display of warriors' skills and courage. It was to prove their dominance over nature. These cruelties came to an end around the fifth century A.D (Preece & Chamberlain. It only ended because of the fall of the Roman Empire and the economic decline when ex.
In September of 1999, the Clyde Beatty-Cole Bros. Circus had been charged under the U.S. Animal Welfare Act for mistreating elephants. In 1998, inspectors from the U.S. Department of Agriculture found several elephants with wounds. They said the wounds were caused by abuse of an ankus, a large hook that is used to force animals to obey commands. Circus officials denied the allegations and claimed that the elephants suffered from infected hair follicles (Hosaka 1). Animal activists boycott and protest against the circus, however, they still can not drive away the public. According to a vice president with the Clyde Beatty-Cole Bros. Circus, Renee Storey, attendance at shows is growing . If crowds continue to go to the shows.Both The Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus train have been bringing elephants to Los Angeles since 1919. LCA held the largest circus demo in the US on July 20th, 2011 at Staples Center in Los Angeles against Ringling Brothers. Over 500 people advocating on behalf of the circus animals turned up to protest The Cruelest Show on Earth.
“The treatment of elephants in traveling circuses is one of the crueler practices, and it’s time for us to stand up for them,” said Paul Koretz, the City Council member who sponsored the ban. Once Los Angeles outlaws circus elephants, other communities would follow. “At some point, this will be universally banned throughout the country,” he said.
Six Southern California cities already ban circus elephants, more than in any other state. Several major American circuses have voluntarily eliminated animals from their shows, instead focusing on human acrobatics, while zoos, including the Los Angeles Zoo, have moved away from use of the bull hook. More than a dozen countries have also banned wild animals from performing in public including China, Bolivia,

Ringling Brothers has fought back, arguing that its treatment of elephants, tigers and other animals is humane, and pointing to inspections by the Department of Agriculture as proof that the animals are receiving exemplary care. But volumes of video and testimonial evidence have proven otherwise. Pressure on circuses to drop wild animal acts has grown steadily, as LCA and other activists have waged countless campaigns, demonstrations and appeals to educate the public on the cruelty of forcing elephants to travel in circuses. Unions and other organizations that would profit from circuses have fought hard to kill the ban, using the economic impact as a reason to continue the blatant showcasing of abuse. Addressing the issue of economic impact in a letter to Mayor Villaraigosa, Chris DeRose stressed “Allowing the [abuse of elephants] to happen in Los Angeles only perpetuates and motivates others to strive for the same livelihoods.”

An LCA investigator went undercover inside the Carson & Barnes Circus, where he documented extreme animal abuse, including elephants being beaten with baseball bats, pitchforks, and other objects; shocked with electric prods; and hit on the head and across the face. LCA worked with local media to expose this cruelty and filed a complaint with the United State Department of Agriculture
Training circus animals involves physically punishing them. These training practices generally will be hidden from public view make the audiences believe these animals want to and are willing to perform. Because these animals have been conditioned through violent training sessions, they know that refusal to obey in the ring will result in severe punishment later. Moments before entering the ring, while just outside of public view, trainers may give the elephants painful whacks or blows to remind them who’s in control and to ensure that the elephants perform the specified tricks on command.
Animals in the circus are routinely whipped, beaten with long metal rods, shocked with electric prods, and struck with clubs. Trainers often strike elephants with a bullhook or an ankus on the sensitive areas of their skin such as around their eyes, under their chin, inside their mouth, and behind their knees and ears. A bullhook is also sometimes used to hit animals across the face. Bears have their noses broken and their paws burned to teach them to walk on their hind legs. Carson & Barnes trainers have even been documented using blowtorches on elephants. Circuses easily get away with these cruel practices because no government agency monitors training sessions.

A number of animals are even drugged to make them more manageable. Others have their teeth removed; one group of chimpanzees had their teeth knocked out by a hammer. Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus uses some of the worst training practices with elephants ever documented. Elephants have a very similar life cycle to humans and they care for their young much like we do. These captive elephants are forced to breed as young as 8 years old, that’s like breeding an 8 year old child. After the mother gives birth, tied by 3 legs the entire time, the babies are taken away immediately which causes the mother severe duress. Ringling Bros. chains the mother by all 4 legs to take the baby away so that the mother elephant won’t be able to hurt the trainers. Even before being weaned these baby elephants are put in a separate area from their mothers and are then chained for up to 23 hours a day. In the wild, elephants often nurse their babies until five years of age. Then the “correction process” for the baby elephants starts where they are tied up and beaten repeatedly to break their spirit. This training process is so brutal, that Ringling Bros. WILL NOT let their own PR department film the training of these baby elephants.

Ongoing travel means that circus animals are confined to boxcars, trailers, or trucks for days at a time in extremely hot and cold weather, often without access to basic necessities such as food, water, and veterinary care. Elephants, primates, big cats, and bears are confined to cramped, filthy cages in which they eat, drink, sleep, defecate, and urinate- all in the same place. The climates circus animals encounter during their exhaustive travels are often very different than that of their natural habitats. Bears are forced to endure extreme heat in the summer, and sometimes even walk across hot concrete on their way into the performing arena. Lions, on the other hand, find the cold very difficult to bear; some circus animals freeze to death.
The majority of circus elephants are captured in the wild. These wild elephants walk as much as 40 miles a day while in their natural habitat. Once captured, they are chained in one place for up to 23 hours a day. Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus brags that it’s three units travel more than 25,000 miles as the circus tours the country for 11 months each year. Ringling Bros. own documents state that on average, elephants are chained for more than 26 hours straight and are sometimes continually chained for as many as 60 to 100 hours. When the animals arrive at their next destination, instead of being let off the railway cars immediately after arriving at the arena, they are sometimes forced to remain inside for hours despite extreme temperatures.

Circus Animal Abuse Facts