Animals Used in Entertainment

Animals are sentient beings who deserve to be treated with love and respect. Unfortunately, animals used for entertainment are seen only for their profitability, not their unique individuality. They don't consent to be locked in tiny cages, stared at in small tanks, isolated in transport trailers, taunted and enraged, or forced to perform unnatural acts such as riding bicycles or jumping through rings of fire.

Sadly, the abuse these animals face behind closed doors is shocking. Many animals used in traveling acts or exhibitions are wild-caught, ripped from their homes and families, and deprived of everything that is natural to them. Others, bred into captivity, are denied of the chance to ever live in a native environment. Remember, minutes of your entertainment means a lifetime of their misery.

Animal Circuses

Using nonhuman animals in circuses is cruel, unnatural and demeaning. They do not ride bicycles, stand on their heads, or jump through rings of fire because they want to; they perform because they’re afraid not to. It's standard practice to use bullhooks and other pain-inflicting objects to poke, prod, strike, shock, and hit animals to "train" them. Ringling Brothers “believes that if they can keep these animals afraid, they can keep them submissive...This is how they train their employees to handle these animals.”1

In their native habitats, elephants, lions, and tigers live in herds, freely roaming savannahs and plains with their families. In circuses, they are forced to spend about 11 months per year traveling, logging more than 25,000 miles in pain and isolation. They may be chained and forced to stand or lie in their own waste.2 Thus, in addition to the physical mistreatment that the animals face, depriving these individuals of the freedom to roam and engage in other instinctual behaviors is inherently cruel.

Circuses subject animals to temperature extremes during travel, which cause misery and sometimes death. A young lion named Clyde died in a sweltering Ringling Brothers boxcar as it crossed the Mojave Desert when temperatures exceeded 100°F. Clyde’s caretaker told the U.S. Department of Agriculture that his supervisors refused to stop the train, even when he warned them that the lions were in danger.3

Additionally, animals used in circuses pose a serious danger to human observers. These intelligent captives sometimes snap under the pressure of constant abuse. Flora, an elephant forced to perform in a circus who was later moved to the Miami Zoo, attacked and severely injured a zookeeper in front of visitors.4 As Florida police officer Blaine Doyle—who shot 47 rounds into Janet, an elephant who ran amok with three children on her back at the Great American Circus in Palm Bay—noted, “I think these elephants are trying to tell us that zoos and circuses are not what God created them for...but we have not been listening.”5

Zoos and Aquariums

Animals who are forced to live in zoos are also ripped from their homes and families. Zoos keep animals in enclosures which—in spite of being made large, enhanced with branches, or decorated
with background paintings—were not chosen by the animals and don't compare with their natural habitats. Animals held prisoner in zoos are forced to spend excruciating days, weeks, and years in the same enclosure. Every natural instinct is torn from these individuals, as is their privacy, as they are stared at by spectators. Some zoos still sell older and "surplus" animals, who may end up in roadside menageries, breeding facilities, circuses, or even as "game" in canned hunt facilities.

Zoos perpetuate the false notion that they promote “conservation” and “education.” In truth, they subjugate the animals' natures rather than celebrating them. Animals in zoos are bored, cramped, lonely, and unable to perform normal social behaviors. Over the course of five summers, a curator at the National Zoo followed over 700 visitors and found that “it didn’t matter what was on display…people [were] treating the exhibits like wallpaper.” He determined “officials should stop kidding themselves about the tremendous educational value of showing an animal behind a glass wall.”6

At aquariums around the country, orcas leap through the air for a handful of fish and are ridden by human performers as if they were water skis. Tourists flock to swim or have their pictures taken with dolphins. Marine parks and zoos are part of a billion-dollar business built on the suffering of intelligent, social beings who are denied everything that is natural and important to them.7 Ric O’Barry, who was a dolphin trainer for the Flipper television series in the 1960s, says aquariums and zoos “want you to think that God put [dolphins] there or [that] they rescued them…If people knew the truth, they wouldn’t buy a ticket.”8

Rodeos

Rodeos are promoted as rough-and-tough exercises of human skill and courage in conquering the fierce, untamed beasts of the Wild West. In reality, rodeos are nothing more than displays of human domination over animals, disguised as entertainment. What began in the 1800's as a skill contest among cowboys has become a commercial operation motivated by greed, big profits, and machismo.9

Rodeos forcibly torment and enrage animals before acts of violence in the ring even begin. Electric prods, spurs, and bucking straps are routinely used to irritate and enrage animals used in rodeos. The “bucking strap” or “flank strap,” used to make animals buck—is tightly cinched around their abdomens. This causes the animals to “buck vigorously to try to rid themselves of the torment.”10 When paired with spurring, the flank strap causes the animals to buck even more violently, often resulting in serious injuries.11 The flank strap can cause open wounds and burns when the hair is rubbed off and the skin is chafed raw.12

The physical violence and domination over captive animals is not natural or empowering. It is a deceptive show of carnage and brutality.

Horse and Dog Racing

Horses weigh at least 1,000 pounds, and have legs supported by ankles the size of a human’s. Yet, they’re forced to run around dirt tracks at speeds of over 30 miles per hour while carrying people on their backs.13 Thus, high rates of injury are no surprise. A New York Daily News reporter remarked, “The thoroughbred race horse is a genetic mistake. It runs too fast, its frame is too large, and its legs are far too small. As long as mankind demands that it run at high speeds under stressful conditions, horses will die at racetracks.”14 Racehorses are victims of a multibillion-dollar industry rife with drug abuse, injuries, and race fixing. Most horses’ careers end in slaughterhouses.

Greyhounds’ natural speed and grace have been exploited for human benefit since the days of ancient Egypt. The advent of modern dog racing at the turn of the 20th century caused greyhound breeders and racetrack proprietors to think of greyhounds as mere commodities. Greyhound racing generates millions of dollars in revenue in states that still allow it.  Thanks to public outcry, patronage of greyhound races has declined. Unfortunately, financial losses may be contributing to poor track conditions, which have caused a marked rise in animal injuries at some tracks.15

Other examples of enterprises that use animals for human amusement are horse carriages, cockfighting, dog fighting, and malls and schools that publicly display animals. Exotic animals are used in photo opportunities, or killed in canned hunts or on hunting ranches. Unfortunately, animals are abused in countless ways to make a profit from their subjugation and misery.

Alternatives

Never attend a circus or any other act that displays animals, and ask family and friends to do the same. Instead, choose fun activities that don’t exploit others, such as sporting events, concerts, musicals, movies, museums, ice skating, biking, swimming, hiking, and camping. If you'd like to visit animals, choose reputable sanctuaries that don't use animals for breeding, selling, or exhibition.

Circuses and other animal-free entertainment that employ only human performers are increasing in popularity, and offer people the chance to be amazed and entertained in a cruelty-free manner.

Expand your circle of compassion towards other animals, and consider compassionate choices in all aspects of your life.

Learn more about living vegan by visiting www.livevegan.org

Sources:

1) Ira Cantor, “Bill Would Outlaw Hooks Used on Elephants,” Milford Daily News 17 Oct. 2007. 2) Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, “Always on the Move, It’s The Town Without a ZIP Code!” Feld Entertainment, Inc., 2006. 3) Marc Kaufman, “USDA Investigates Death of Circus Lion; Activists Challenge Ringling Bros.’ Account, Say They Notified Federal Officials,” The Washington Post 8 Aug. 2004. 4) NBC 6 News Team, “Elephant Who Attacked Handler Was Circus Star,” NBC6.net, 17 Dec. 2002. 5) Louis Sahagun, “Elephants Pose Giant Dangers,” Los Angeles Times 11 Oct. 1994. 6) William Booth, “Naked Ape New Zoo Attraction; Surprise Results From People-Watching Study,” The Washington Post 14 Mar. 1991. 7) Sally Kestin, “Not a Perfect Picture,” Sun-Sentinel 16 May 2004.

8) Kestin, “Not a Perfect Picture.” 9) Ronda Quaid, “A Tip of the Hat to the Vaqueros,” Coastline 1996. 10) Hattie Klotz, “Bucking Bronco Dies in Corel Center Rodeo,” The Ottawa Citizen 9 Aug. 1999. 11) Dr. Peggy Larson, D.V.M., M.S., J.D., e-mail to PETA, 15 Nov. 2001 12) Chris Heidenrich, “Animal-Rights Group Protests Rodeo,” Daily Herald 17 Jul. 1998. 13) Ted Miller, “Six Recent Horse Deaths at Emerald Downs Spark Concern,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer 8 May 2001. 14) Bill Finley, “Sadly, No Way to Stop Deaths,” New York Daily News 10 Jun. 1993. 15) “Injuries to Dogs Increase at Dairyland,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel 15 May 2003.