In the circus, the elephants were forcibly taken away from their mothers and were taught to perform while they were still breastfeeding. Pets have experienced the same problematic training methods and behaved unnaturally. Trainers use electric shocks, whips, chains, and intimidation to control these beautiful and powerful animals, allowing them to perform unnatural and complex stunts.
Circuses are constrained in their animal training methods by animal welfare laws. So they often train animals using reward-based methods. However, some circuses have been shown to still employ archaic and punishing implements in order to subdue their animal performers.
Some circuses claim to be educational, but seeing such gorgeous animals turned into jokes has no educational value. In circuses, animals are taken away from all that is natural and important, and, even worse, they are beaten and forced to perform silly stunts for our entertainment. Circus breaks up families and separates elephants from their mothers because younger animals are easier to control. Animal training methods used in circuses involve varying degrees of punishment and imprisonment.
Circuses Conflict with Animal Nature
In the circus, almost any natural behavior of animals is interfered with. The conflict between their instincts and the harsh reality of bondage, as well as training methods that use violence, fear and intimidation, cause tremendous stress in wild animals. After years of abuse in the circus, it’s no surprise that animals sometimes try to escape their sad existence.
Circus animals are often taken away from their native habitat, enslaved or raised in captivity, and undergo cruel training for pure entertainment purposes. They were taken away by their families when they were young; they were subjected to abusive training methods including restraints, hooks, chains, batons, whips, and electric shock devices; and endangered public health and safety. Many of them were forced to use painful devices such as whips and electric shocks for training under the threat of punishment.
The training sessions that experience the most abuse are not overseen by the AWA, and trainers regularly use physical abuse, including beating, to force animals to perform complex stunts on command. Operant training is a form of teaching animals to perform tricks involving depriving food or water and providing them only after performing the trick. Circus uses this method to get animals to perform at the right time during the show.
Unfortunate Implements for Animal Training
It is standard practice in the circus industry to use hooks and other objects to poke, nudge, push, shock and poke animals in order to “train” them – all for a few minutes of human pleasure. The most cruel treatment of circus animals occurs during training, on transport and when you are not looking.
Parents who plan a family trip to a circus often don’t know the cruel training that animals have to go through, including ropes, chains, hooks, and electric rods. One of the obvious signs that the sight you are witnessing is inhumane (well, except for caged animals that appear pale compared to the natural environment) is the method used to train the animals. The nature of circus animal training is revealed by labor tools.
Similarly, hooks are used to reinforce learned fear, and whips are used to display big cats, bears, and other animals. Usually the brutal system of corporal punishment begins when the animal is still young. Violent physical abuse is still a common method of teaching and controlling elephants and other animals in circuses. Most allegations of cruelty to animals in the circus are focused on elephants, but in terms of animal rights, no animals should be forced to perform tricks in order to make money for people who kidnap humans.
Even if circuses did not employ violent training or extreme housing methods (zoos usually do not engage in violent training or extreme conditions, but still violate animal rights), animal rights activists will oppose the use of animals in circuses, because the practice associated with breeding, buying, selling and keeping animals violates their rights.
Animal Trainers Are to be Forgiven
This does not mean that every animal keeper or trainer wants to harm the animals they work with, but the fact is that a circus, zoo or marine park is not a place for wildlife. The cruelty inherent in travel almost every week of the year, forcibly separating herd and children, chaining when they do not perform, restrictive cages and forced teaching methods are just some of the reasons the Angels of Assisi oppose the use of wild animals in circuses. For circuses, some animal advocates will advocate keeping animals in circuses as long as the training methods are not too harsh.
The Animal Welfare Act allows the use of electrodes for training circus animals. Animal Defenders International studied the methods used to train elephants used in the films Water for Elephants and Keeper of the Zoo and found that elephants were repeatedly electrocuted to force them to perform the actions desired by the producers.
Some people will argue that elephants should like to perform, because you can’t let such a big animal perform skills, but with the weapons they can use and years of physical abuse, elephant trainers can usually beat them.
Sketchy Training Practices and Reporting
While Ringling Bros. has long stated that its elephant training methods are reward-based – even after announcing at its last elephant show before retirement, the company posted photographs of former circus training camps showing the calves were nearly tortured before the show. Secret videotapes of animal training at various other institutions have shown widespread use of brutal methods, including beating elephants with hooks and electric shocks, whipping and sticking large cats with whips and sticks, and dragging them with heavy tied chains.
Neck, slap and stabbing bears with long poles, and chimpanzees are kicked and whipped. Several former trainers or caretakers have spoken out by exposing the cruel methods used to tame and train circus animals. Animal shows have declined in popularity for decades, while ticket sales have skyrocketed in circuses that only employ experienced people, such as Cirque du Soleil.
In circuses, viewers can still see beautiful, majestic animals such as elephants, which their trainers make fun of, or big cats transformed into cowardly creatures by the whip snapping of the powerful lion tamer.
Final words
It takes thousands of years to domesticate animals, and wild animals that perform in circuses have the same needs as in nature. In other words, animals that are forced to perform will always suffer – the only option for humans is to keep them out of circuses.
In the United States, the Federal Traveling Exotic Animal Protection Act prohibits the use of non-human primates, elephants, lions, tigers, and other species in circuses, but it has yet to be passed. Exposing the practice of these activities also involves considering the origin of the animals; thus, the chapter on trade in endangered species highlights gaps in international law, and other chapters refute the idea that watching animals performing in a circus or captive in a zoo has “educational” benefits.
