Sylvia says: "Circuses are NO fun for animals. The awful torture that the animals must endure is absolutely heartbreaking. A whole lifetime of misery does not justify one or two hours of 'fun'."
Rhode Island Representative Antonio J. Pires said: "Circuses pass themselves off as entertainment for the whole family, but they're anything but fun and games for the defenseless animals performing in them. It's time for us to realize that the circus is not a safe, natural life for wild animals."
Bears commonly have their paws burned to force them to stand on their hind legs.
Tigers and lions live and travel in cages 4x6x5 feet large. (Not very large.)
Elephants in the circus live most of their lives in leg shackles, are beaten with bullhooks to break their spirits, and are forced to travel 50 weeks out of the year in unheated and uncooled boxcars. They often suffer crippling injuries from constantly being chained and forced to perform physically difficult tasks. Ringling [Brothers and Barnum & Bailey's Circus] has been cited repeatedly by the USDA for violating minimum standards of care.For more information, visit Circuses.com .
Many people hear the name Ringling Brothers (the circus which most often visits Rhode Island) and assume that their animals are treated properly. On the contrary, Ringling Brothers has violated the Animal Welfare Act numerous times, and had formal charges brought against it in 1998 by the USDA. Sears, a previous sponser, left the show after a sick baby elephant was forced to perform, and, subsequently, found dead. Ringling Brothers barn man Tom Rider said:
[Elephants] live in confinement, and they are beaten all the time when they don't perform properly... When I became disturbed about the treatment of the elephants, the continued beatings, including the baby Benjamin, [who drowned in a few feet of water in 1999] I was told "that's discipline".For more information about Ringling Brothers, visit this factsheet. Using information gathered by PETA, it documents the cases of animal abuse and neglect attributed to Ringling Brothers. The abuse ranges from storing food improperly, to euthanizing animals with easily treatable health conditions, to a case where tigers were nearly baked alive due to cruel storage conditions.
Please boycott the circus. There are animal-free circuses, like Cirque de Soleil, which are even more entertaining, and have harmed no animals. There are smaller animal-free circuses as well. Some towns are even banning animal circuses.
The ASPCA, WSPA and most other animal welfare groups are against the use of animals for entertainment purposes.
