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Take Another Look At The Circus

By Eliza Bicknell of Lotus Petal Yoga

Ahhh the circus, the aroma of popcorn and cotton candy wafting through the air, the death defying acts performed by acrobats and tightrope walkers, trapeze artists, hundreds of clowns pouring out of a tiny volkswagon and all of those crazy acts performed by animals, like elephants.

Have you ever stopped to wonder what life must be like for an elephant in a circus? Have you ever though of what it takes to train an elephant to perform the unnatural tasks asked of it in a typical circus act?

Lets take a brief look into one of the most famous and well known circuses, Ringling Brothers/Barnum and Bailey and how they train their elephants. While circuses such as Ringling Brothers may claim to train their elephants through a reward system, know that that is an outright lie.

A baby elephant born to the circus is first captured by lassoing all four legs rodeo style and dragged away from its mother, often before it is two years of age. Supression and discipline is now the name of the game. To start, the baby elephant is chained by all four legs to a concrete floor for up to 22 ½ hours a day to break their spirits. This is physically and psychologically traumitizing for the animals. After they stop struggling and give up, (sometimes this takes as long as 6 months), they are introduced to the bullhook while being led around a small area by the neck.

The elephant bullhook has been used for centuries in elephant handling. It consists of a large sharp spike with a hook coming off of one side. The hook allows the keeper to assert his commands over the elephant. “Training techniques used by Gary Jacobson, (trainer at Ringling Brothers,) include a lot of brute force, manpower, electricity and savage disposition” – Sam Haddock. “Sink that hook into ’em. When you hear that screaming, then you know you got their attention.” Trainer Tim Frisco a Carson & Barnes elephant trainer, who learned the trade from his father, a former trainer for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus instructs.

Ringling Brothers falsley claims that performances are based on what the animals naturally do during plany and socialization. This if far from true. Elephants do not normally sit up on their hind legs, this is unnatural and uncomforatble for them. Nor do they stand in two or even one armed handstands or on their heads. In order to get elephants to perform these well received tricks, hundreds of hours are spent with the bullhook.

The baby elephant screams continuously in agony and pain the entire time the training process takes place. To see this, step by step process I have just outlined in a slide show or video, visit http://www.ringlingbeatsanimals.com

Possibly even worse than the beating the elephants endure is the confinement. Elephants normally roam in large social groups for up to 50 miles a day. In circuses they are often kept in spaces no bigger than a standard studio apartment and in many cases, they are chained in spaces the size of an automobile by two legs, for up to 20 hours a day. Some are even kept in trucks. This obviously has psychological and physical effects on the animals.

Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus were just taken to court for their unethical and inhumane treatment of elephants but sadly the case was just dismissed (Dec.30, 2009) on a legal technicality. They will most likely try to spin this verdict as their victory, but it is by no means a vindication of their brutal training and management practices.

During the trial, Ringling Brothers employees and even CEO Kenneth Feld stated under oath and in sworn documentation that: the elephants are routinely hit with bullhooks, they are regularly chained in box cars for more than 26 hours at a time and for as long as 100 hours without a break while traveling across the country for 11 months of the year, and for as much as 22½ hours each day in Ringling’s breeding center. Baby elephants are forcibly separated from their mothers for training at age two or younger.

Elephants are an endangered species. In Africa, there were once millions of elephants who roamed the entire continent. Now they are found in only sub-Sahara Africa and their numbers are around 300,000. The Asian elephant is even more critically endangered. Its numbers are down to only about 30,000.

It is hard to imagine that anyone could condone the cruelty elephants suffer at the hands of circus trainers. However, people continue to embrace the circus –especially Ringling Brothers. There is often a disconnect between what people say they believe about animals and how they act when it comes to animals. Most humans claim to take animals' interests seriously but in practice continue to ignore them for trivial reasons. It’s just something to think about and reflect upon.

Certainly we should applaud the human circus performers who do truly amazing feats, train and work so very hard and skillfully at their artistry. But now, isn’t it time that we follow in the footsteps of Sweden, Austria, Costa Rica, India, Finland and Singapore and ban or at least seriously restrict the use of animals in entertainment? Parents planning a family trip to the circus don’t know about the violent training sessions these animals face with ropes, bullhooks and electric shock prods. Now you know. Now perhaps you can help spread the word or make a difference in some small way.

For more Information on this please visit: http://www.circuses.com/, http://elephanttrust.org/node/414 , http://animalrights.about.com/od/animalsinentertainment/a/JaynesElephant2.htm

Contributor's Note

Elephants are one of my favorite animals and I am horribly saddened by how they are treated in circuses and zoos. One of the best books I have ever read is about an elephant - its called Modoc and its a true story of a bond formed between a loving man and an elephant. I highly recommend it.

PLEASE VISIT THE CONTRIBUTOR'S WEBSITE

Free Elephants from Zoos
Elephants suffer in captivity, learn more.
www.squidoo.com/free-elephants-from-zoos

A century from now (or hopefully less) people will be horrified at this concept of zoos, just as we are now horrified by the concept of big-game hunting. Sadly it takes a long time for society to learn and discard its old habits.

One Point of Light Jan 7, 2010 12:39

I'd always thought it demeaning the way animals were dressed up and made to perform for crowds, but never gave training a second thought. Like so many other facets of the relationship between humans and non-human animals, sad.

nick Jan 7, 2010 14:23

Another fine intel with quality facts and great presentation, Eliza.
Being a lover of animals, this story is cause for distress and needs to be spread around the world.
Thank you for sharing.
Frederick

frederick Jan 7, 2010 17:15

I am supportive 100% re removing animals from performing in the circus. It is cruel and demeaning and Governments should take action and outlaw the practice. As a child, I lived in suburbia with a park opposite where I lived. The travelling circus would set up in the park once a year, and it was quite common for me to wake up and see an elephant in my front garden, eating my mother's prized flowers. Elephants are AWESOME and I would love to be able to read their minds and learn what is behind their sad eyes. Someone told me once, that they don't make very good house pets. Go figure! *smiles*

How cool that you had elephants eating your flowers in your front yard, I would have loved to see that (thouse I suppose your mother was not too happy about it, just as I am not happy about the deer who constantly eat my entire garden every year). I spent some time on a camping safari in Africa and we had elephants eating trees right above our tent!

Absolutely horrific. Thank you for helping to shed light on this practice. It's thanks to people like you that this sort of thing ends.

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