Circus Animal Suffering

Alexander Avila

5/5/17

ENG 101

Circus Animal Cruelty

Circuses have been part of American culture since the late 1700s. For the longest time, we were captivated by the spectacle of the show, not thinking twice about how the famous animals we loved to watch perform tricks were being treated. These animals are not treated like animals in a professional zoo run by experts, far from it, they are kept in small cages, forced to live in unnatural climates, and forced perform tricks using pain and intimidation. 

 A long time ago probably when I was 13 or younger I went to the circus with my dad and brother. At the time I thought nothing of how they must treat the animals, probably thinking in the back of my head that they taught them their tricks through kindness and reward similar to a pet dog. The thought never occurred to me that they were training the animals through pain and intimidation, using whips, metal bars, and elephant hooks. Whips are most popularly used in Lion tamer shows, metal bars are used to bluntly hit the animal into submission, and Elephant hooks which are sticks with a sharp curved metal tips, are use to tug on an elephants skin to get it to do what you want. How can we consider ourselves civilized when animals are being abused simply for entertainment? 

According to the documentary “Stop Circus Suffering” by Animal Defenders International When they are not “training” to perform tricks animals like lions, tigers, and bears live in cages that are 6 and a half by 8 feet no bigger than the animals themselves on the backs of trucks. It is especially heinous when these animals are forced to defecate and urinate in these same small spaces. Bigger animals like the elephants don’t have it any better. For most of the day, elephants are chained up by their legs and are barely able to walk a pace or two forward or backward. Animals are forced to be in climates they were not born to live in such as a lion being forced to endure the freezing snow or a polar bear being forced to lay in the heat with nothing but a small house fan to keep him cool.  

  

    When it’s time to move locations animals are left in trailers for a very long time until the old site is dismantled and the new site is prepared. Animal Defenders International, ADI, a worldwide organization working on animal welfare and conservation issues, had recorded animals left in trailers for periods of up to 25 hours when the journey itself was only five hours. With all of these types of suffering at hand, according to ADI, it is no wonder the animals will eventually go insane. When locked up for so many years The animals will pace back and forth and sway their heads left and right. ADI dubs this mental state “Circus Madness.”

 

            Eventually, some animals just refuse to endure their suffering for any longer and go berserk to escape. One example is Tyke, an elephant who nearly killed a circus worker and killed her trainer named Allen Campbell who was trying to protect the worker. Tyke escaped the circus during a performance in Hawaii and was rampaging through the city for 30 long minutes before she sadly had to be shot to death to prevent her from hurting, or worse, killing anyone else.

Animal rights organization, Captive Animals.org, published this account of Tyke’s handling: “Several ex-Hawthorn (Owner of the circus) employees … talked openly about the use of bull hooks to control elephants in the ring. Sometimes the mere threat is enough to control them, sometimes it needs to be brought down on their heads or hooked in their ears (this is just the treatment that can be seen in the ring). The hook is described as being used if the elephants are ‘getting lazy’ or ‘don’t want to do something.'

“Joseph outlines the conditions of the winter compound: ‘the elephants were lined up and chained in a barn for 22 hours a day’ (the two hours out of chains is practice time). Joseph describes Tyke as being unhappy in captivity and forced to perform, and having always been problematic, which resulted in more ‘discipline.'

“Both employees had warned that Tyke should not be forced to perform, both were ignored. Sally explains that it was more important to the owners to uphold a contract than it was to consider either Tyke’s well-being or public safety.”

By this time, Tyke had been with the circus for nearly 20 years. She had apparently had suffered enough, rampaging through the performance ring and eventually into the streets, where she was shot 86 times by Honolulu Police.

This event is one of the main reasons I decided to write this paper because what if all those years ago when I was at the circus with my father and brother that one of the many elephants performing a conga line routine had decided they had enough and went berserk. I’d hate to imagine what could have happened to me or my family that day.

            In conclusion, I urge all of you, do not support circuses that use animals not only because of the potential abuse of the animals but for your own safety as well.

Tyke the elephant being shot to death to end her rampage