Perhaps you’re considering taking the family to the circus show this month. – but did you know that your ticket in reality, pays for animals to continue to suffer in circuses?
President Jan Creamer, of world renowned Animal Defenders International, spoke with me to reveal the TRUTH BEHIND THE LIES, of Cleveland's Ringling Bros. Circus Show.
- The Facts Animal Defenders International (ADI) has investigated the use of animals in traveling circuses both here and around the world. Studies have shown that animal welfare is inevitably compromised due to the traveling and temporary nature of the circus, with severe confinement inevitable and physical abuse commonplace.
- Constant travel presents many challenges to the physical, psychological and behavioral welfare of the animals: frequent transportation; extended periods of time shut in vehicles, beyond the length of the journey itself; the necessity for accommodations to be small, lightweight and portable all leads to high levels of suffering.
- Public safety is also an important issue. Moving potentially dangerous animals across open ground and in close proximity to the public has resulted in escapes and injuries. We have seen that the need to control these animals in public also raises the level of animal abuse when workers moving the animals under time pressures, use weapons and beatings to keep control.
ADI investigations, and those of others, have exposed the culture of animal handling and training in the circus industry to be abusive. Many hours of video evidence have shown that pain, punishment and fear are the methods used to force animals to perform tricks.
Trainers and workers have been filmed routinely using whips, goads, metal bars, pitchforks, shovels, the ankus/bullhook (a bar with a metal hook on the end), as well as electric prods and even stun guns on the animals.
No one is saying “end circuses”; circus businesses must adapt to changes in audience tastes, like all businesses, and the popularity of human-only circus shows points the way. Cirque du Soleil, for example appears eight times in the top ranking international shows alongside Madonna and Lady Gaga world tours (Top 50 Highest Earning World Tours in 2012), with combined ticket sales of nearly $400 million. Not a single animal circus made the list.
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So save your money, and your conscience – when the Ringling comes to Cleveland, show them you refuse to support animal suffering by taking your business elsewhere.
To learn more about ADI’s campaign to Stop Circus Suffering in the United States, please visit: