Should Circus Animals Be Banned?

Kim CollinsMrs. PughEnglish 12

Transport and Housingof Animals

• In the wild– native to lands other than North

America. – Where they live, they have

adapted to their own specific climate over millions of years.

– free to gather food however they choose, whether it be eating plants and leaves like the elephant, or pursuing it's hunting instincts, like the Tiger.

– Can walk around on the dirt, take baths in water, hide in the grass, climb or rub up against a tree.

Transport and Housing of Animals

• In the Circus– Spend approximately 50 weeks of

the year traveling around the country, where the climate is controlled by where they may be.

– from brutal heat to frigid cold. – fed predetermined diets at

specific times, which may consist of food pellets, dried grass that is far from fresh, and meat that may be rotting.

– Rarely get to touch anything but metal cages, trucks, and railroad cars.

– May never touch a tree.– Spend days at a time chained in

cramped train cars or trucks, eating and sleeping in their own excrement.

Training of Animals• Training is often done behind in secret

behind closed doors• Training methods

– Whips– bullhook (a wooden stick with a

sharp, pointed hook at the end) intended to cause pain and puncture the skin

– Electric Shock– Tight collars– Trainers drug some animals to

make them “manageable” and surgically remove the teeth and claws from others. 

– Sticks, axe handles, baseball bats, metal pipes (weapons are used to hit and beat restrained animals in order to break their spirits and show them "who’s boss.“)

Treatment of Domestic animals used • Horses were punched in the face and

severely whipped.• Dogs were only fed when they

performed properly and were skin and bones under their fur.

• Cats were forced to jump from high platforms onto small pillows.

• Trainers who appeared to be petting dogs during the show were really inflicting a painful pinch.

• Records of horses that were reduced to skeletal remains

Performances• Perform unnatural tricks that are often

damaging to their bodies.• elephant responds to verbal

commands from a trainer carrying a bullhook

• Things animals are forced to perform– Headstands– hind-leg stands– lying down– tub-sitting– Crawling– twirling

Health• Animals often display neurotic

behavior, such as swaying and head-bobbing, from boredom and severe stress.

• Suffer from painful foot and joint disease, a leading cause of premature death in captive elephants, from standing too long on hard surfaces and in their own waste.

Health• Elelephants in Circuses Frequently

contract or are exposed to a human strain of tuberculosis (TB).

• TB is known to thrive in the cramped, close quarters that they are forced to endure day in and day out.

• In several instances, elephants known to be suffering from TB have been used to give rides to the public.

• Still give rides to young children

Public Safety• Since 1990, 57 people have been killed • more than 120 seriously injured by captive

elephants.• more than 123 documented attacks on

humans by captive large cats in the United States, 13 of which resulted in fatal injuries.

• November 18, 2005: A volunteer clown for the Shriners was sentenced to four years in prison and eight years of extended supervision for using a computer to facilitate a sex crime with the intent of having sex with a 14-year-old girl. The president of the Owensboro Shrine Clowns defended the man's character.

• May 25, 2004: Thomas Allen Riccio, a circus clown who performs under the name “Spanky” with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, was arrested in Fayetteville, N.C., and charged with 10 counts of third-degree sexual exploitation of a minor. found 2,000 pictures on Riccio’s computer, of child pornography that included girls as young as five years old

Tyke an circus elephant gunned down.

Siegfried & Roy Tiger Attack• On October 3, 2006

Montecore, a 600-pound white tiger, acted on instinct, like a typical wild animal, and attacked his long-time handler, Roy Horn of Siegfried & Roy, in a horrific incident that played out in front of a live audience at The Mirage in Las Vegas.