Circus
the saddest show on Earth
Although animal-focused acts are on the decline, elephants balancing on their hind legs, bicycle-riding bears and big cats jumping through flaming hoops at the crack of their trainer’s whip are still a main attraction for some big name operations.
Bears, elephants, tigers, and other animals do not voluntarily ride bicycles, stand on their heads, balance on balls, or jump through rings of fire. They don't perform these and other difficult tricks because they want to; they perform them because they're afraid of what will happen if they don't.
For animals in circuses, there is no such thing as "positive reinforcement"—only varying degrees of punishment and deprivation. To force them to perform these meaningless and physically uncomfortable tricks, trainers use whips, tight collars, muzzles, electric prods, bullhooks, and other painful tools of the trade.
While many circuses are quick to advertise good old-fashioned family fun, the fine print tells a different story: the needless suffering of animals.
Myth 1: Circus animals perform tricks out of love for their trainers
Fact: Circus training methods often include beating animals with clubs and other objects (even during performances) and depriving them of food. Trainers sometimes strike elephants with sharp bull hooks, which can puncture and tear the skin. (Despite its appearance, an elephant’s skin is as sensitive as our own). Trainers resort to these brutal methods to establish and maintain a position of dominance, yet wild animals will always behave in instinctive and unpredictable ways. (Who can forget Roy Horn of Siegfried and Roy being dragged offstage by one of the act’s white tigers?)
Myth 2: Circus animals are taught and nurtured their whole lives
Fact: Many circus animals are leased from dealers and move from circus to circus, following seasonal contracts. A lot of circuses fail to provide regular, competent veterinary care. Animals who aren’t obedient or who have grown too old to perform may be sold or given to zoos, roadside attractions, research laboratories or private individuals — all options unlikely to improve their quality of life.
Myth 3: After the show, the animals rest in comfort
Fact: After the show, the animals are locked in cages and shipped to the next town in trucks and railway cars without heat or air conditioning. Circus animals spend much of their lives in small cages where they are barely able to turn around and are often are deprived of food and water for extended periods.
Myth 4: The circus is safe fun for the whole family
Fact: Both people and animals are injured at circuses. In 1994, an elephant named Tyke charged through an audience in Honolulu after killing one circus employee and injuring another. Tyke was then shot to death on a city street. In 1990, a chimpanzee abandoned his motorcycle act, rushed into the stands, and bit a child. In 1994, a baby elephant named Mickey was beaten during a performance. A month later, during another performance, Mickey attacked a child in the audience.
Myth 5: Circuses help educate children and adults about endangered species
Fact: Making wild animals perform unnatural tricks far from their natural habitats doesn’t teach people anything about the animals. By showcasing tricycle-riding bears and tutu-wearing elephants, circuses paint animals as creatures whose sole purpose is to amuse us.
Bears, elephants, tigers, and other animals do not voluntarily ride bicycles, stand on their heads, balance on balls, or jump through rings of fire. They don't perform these and other difficult tricks because they want to; they perform them because they're afraid of what will happen if they don't.
For animals in circuses, there is no such thing as "positive reinforcement"—only varying degrees of punishment and deprivation. To force them to perform these meaningless and physically uncomfortable tricks, trainers use whips, tight collars, muzzles, electric prods, bullhooks, and other painful tools of the trade.
While many circuses are quick to advertise good old-fashioned family fun, the fine print tells a different story: the needless suffering of animals.
Myth 1: Circus animals perform tricks out of love for their trainers
Fact: Circus training methods often include beating animals with clubs and other objects (even during performances) and depriving them of food. Trainers sometimes strike elephants with sharp bull hooks, which can puncture and tear the skin. (Despite its appearance, an elephant’s skin is as sensitive as our own). Trainers resort to these brutal methods to establish and maintain a position of dominance, yet wild animals will always behave in instinctive and unpredictable ways. (Who can forget Roy Horn of Siegfried and Roy being dragged offstage by one of the act’s white tigers?)
Myth 2: Circus animals are taught and nurtured their whole lives
Fact: Many circus animals are leased from dealers and move from circus to circus, following seasonal contracts. A lot of circuses fail to provide regular, competent veterinary care. Animals who aren’t obedient or who have grown too old to perform may be sold or given to zoos, roadside attractions, research laboratories or private individuals — all options unlikely to improve their quality of life.
Myth 3: After the show, the animals rest in comfort
Fact: After the show, the animals are locked in cages and shipped to the next town in trucks and railway cars without heat or air conditioning. Circus animals spend much of their lives in small cages where they are barely able to turn around and are often are deprived of food and water for extended periods.
Myth 4: The circus is safe fun for the whole family
Fact: Both people and animals are injured at circuses. In 1994, an elephant named Tyke charged through an audience in Honolulu after killing one circus employee and injuring another. Tyke was then shot to death on a city street. In 1990, a chimpanzee abandoned his motorcycle act, rushed into the stands, and bit a child. In 1994, a baby elephant named Mickey was beaten during a performance. A month later, during another performance, Mickey attacked a child in the audience.
Myth 5: Circuses help educate children and adults about endangered species
Fact: Making wild animals perform unnatural tricks far from their natural habitats doesn’t teach people anything about the animals. By showcasing tricycle-riding bears and tutu-wearing elephants, circuses paint animals as creatures whose sole purpose is to amuse us.
Traveling zoos and petting zoos subject animals to the stress of transport, alien environments, irregular feeding and watering, mishandling, and crowds of strangers. Many children and adults have been mauled by tigers, primates, and other animals who are used as props in photo shoots, and countless people have been sickened - some have even died - after contracting diseases from animals in petting zoos.
Roadside zoos and backyard menageries range from small menageries where animals are kept in barren cages constructed of concrete and metal bars to larger collections with animals confined to compounds surrounded by chain-link fencing. At these facilities, animals are often deprived of adequate food, water, shelter, and veterinary care.
Constant travel means that animals are confined to boxcars, trailers, or trucks for days at a time in extremely hot and cold weather, often without access to basic necessities such as food, water, and veterinary care. Elephants, big cats, bears, and primates are confined to cramped and filthy cages in which they eat, drink, sleep, defecate, and urinate - all in the same place.
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus boasts that its three units travel more than 25,000 miles as the circus tours the country for 11 months each year.
Ringling's own documents reveal that on average, elephants are chained for more than 26 hours straight and are sometimes continually chained for as many as 60 to 100 hours.
Tigers and lions usually live and travel in cages that provide barely enough room for the animals to turn around, often with two big cats crammed into a single cage. In July 2004, Clyde, a young lion traveling with Ringling, died in a poorly ventilated boxcar while the circus was crossing the Mojave Desert, where temperatures reached at least 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Clyde likely died a miserable death from heatstroke and dehydration.
Previously, two tigers with Ringling injured themselves while attempting to escape from their cages in an overheated boxcar.
These cruel exhibits can only stay in business because people pay admission to visit them. Please don't pay to keep animals imprisoned.
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus boasts that its three units travel more than 25,000 miles as the circus tours the country for 11 months each year.
Ringling's own documents reveal that on average, elephants are chained for more than 26 hours straight and are sometimes continually chained for as many as 60 to 100 hours.
Tigers and lions usually live and travel in cages that provide barely enough room for the animals to turn around, often with two big cats crammed into a single cage. In July 2004, Clyde, a young lion traveling with Ringling, died in a poorly ventilated boxcar while the circus was crossing the Mojave Desert, where temperatures reached at least 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Clyde likely died a miserable death from heatstroke and dehydration.
Previously, two tigers with Ringling injured themselves while attempting to escape from their cages in an overheated boxcar.
These cruel exhibits can only stay in business because people pay admission to visit them. Please don't pay to keep animals imprisoned.
Ringling Brothers Circus
The Ringling Brothers Circus was a circus founded in the United States in 1884 by five of the seven Ringling Brothers: Albert (1852–1916), August (1854–1907), Otto (1858–1911), Alfred T. (1862–1919), Charles (1863–1926), John (1866–1936), and Henry (1869–1918).
In 1907 it acquired the Barnum & Bailey Circus, merging them in 1919 to become Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus, promoted as The Greatest Show on Earth.
In 1907 it acquired the Barnum & Bailey Circus, merging them in 1919 to become Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus, promoted as The Greatest Show on Earth.
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus is an American circus company.
The company was started when the circus created by James Anthony Bailey and P. T. Barnum was merged with the Ringling Brothers Circus. The Ringling brothers purchased the Barnum & Bailey Circus in 1907, but ran the circuses separately until they were finally merged in 1919.
In 1957 John Ringling North changed the circus from using their own portable tents to using venues, such as sports stadiums that had the seating already in place.
In 1967 Irvin Feld bought the circus, but in 1971 he sold it to Mattel. He bought it back in 1982.
The company was started when the circus created by James Anthony Bailey and P. T. Barnum was merged with the Ringling Brothers Circus. The Ringling brothers purchased the Barnum & Bailey Circus in 1907, but ran the circuses separately until they were finally merged in 1919.
In 1957 John Ringling North changed the circus from using their own portable tents to using venues, such as sports stadiums that had the seating already in place.
In 1967 Irvin Feld bought the circus, but in 1971 he sold it to Mattel. He bought it back in 1982.
In the Ringling Bros. circus, elephants are beaten, hit, poked, prodded, and jabbed with sharp hooks, sometimes until bloody.
Ringling breaks the spirit of elephants when they're vulnerable babies who should still be with their mothers.
Heartbreaking photos reveal how Ringling Bros. circus trainers cruelly force baby elephants to learn tricks, and it's not through a reward system, as they claim.
Ringling breaks the spirit of elephants when they're vulnerable babies who should still be with their mothers.
Heartbreaking photos reveal how Ringling Bros. circus trainers cruelly force baby elephants to learn tricks, and it's not through a reward system, as they claim.
PETA's investigation of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus found that workers were beating, whipping, and hooking elephants and striking tigers.
Ringling's baby elephants
tied up and electro-shocked by trainers
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Never-before-seen photos reveal how Ringling Bros. circus trainers cruelly force baby elephants to learn tricks, and it's not through a reward system, as they claim. Explore the photos that will make parents think twice about taking their child to the circus.
You may have wondered how Ringling Bros. gets 8,000-pound elephants to perform tricks like sitting up and even standing on their heads, but now you know.
Ringling breaks the spirit of elephants when they're vulnerable babies who should still be with their mothers.
Unsuspecting parents planning a family trip to the circus don't know about the violent training sessions with ropes, bullhooks, and electric shock prods that elephants endure and therefor we need you to tell them!
To view the entire picture slideshow, please click HERE!
You may have wondered how Ringling Bros. gets 8,000-pound elephants to perform tricks like sitting up and even standing on their heads, but now you know.
Ringling breaks the spirit of elephants when they're vulnerable babies who should still be with their mothers.
Unsuspecting parents planning a family trip to the circus don't know about the violent training sessions with ropes, bullhooks, and electric shock prods that elephants endure and therefor we need you to tell them!
To view the entire picture slideshow, please click HERE!
The following video shows the pain, abuse, and suffering
that Ringling elephants endure daily
Actor and animal defender Alec Baldwin describes the sad plight of elephants who are torn from their families and forced to perform grueling tricks in the circus.
The kind of circus-show that the visitors didn't expect...
Please don't pay to keep animals imprisoned
Please don't support the cruel circus industry that abuses animals and deprives them of their freedom.
Don't take your kids to circuses that exploits animals but instead, please chose so called "fun circuses" - circuses that do NOT use animal acts and are great fun for the whole family.
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7 Fingers Tel.: 514-521-4477 E-Mail: info@les7doigtsdelamain.com Web: les7doigtsdelamain.com Bindlestiff Family Cirkus P.O. Box 1917 New York, NY 10009 Tel.: 212-726-1935 E-Mail: cirkus@bindlestiff.org Web: www.bindlestiff.org Circus Millennia 3700 S. Four Mile Run Arlington, VA 22206 Tel.: 703-683-5040 E-Mail: circusjen@hotmail.com Circus of the Kids 926 Waverly Rd. Tallahassee, FL 32312 Tel.: 917-208-6341 E-Mail: circusofthekids@aol.com Web: circusofthekids.com Cirque du Soleil 8400 Second Ave. Montreal, Québec Canada HIZ 4M6 Tel.: 514-722-2324 E-Mail: contact@cirquedusoleil.com Web: cirquedusoleil.com Cirque Éloize 4230 rue Hogan Montréal, Québec Canada H2H 2N3 Tel.: 514-596-3838 E-Mail: info@cirque-eloize.com Web: cirque-eloize.com Cirque Éos P.O. Box 53017 Succursale Canardière, Québec G1K 5K3 Canada Tel.: 418-661-1961 E-Mail: ecq@cirqueeos.qc.ca Web: cirqueeos.qc.ca Cirque Plume 37 rue Battant Besancon 25000 France Tel.: 33-3-81-81-38-80 E-Mail: info@cirqueplume.com Web: cirqueplume.com Cirque San Jose 634 N. Eighth St. San Jose, CA 94112 Tel.: 408-929-0678 E-Mail: 74020.3041@compuserve.com Fern Street Circus P.O. Box 621004 San Diego, CA 92162 Tel.: 619-235-9756 E-Mail: john@fernstreetcircus.org Web: fernstreetcircus.org Flying High Circus FSU Circus Tallahassee, FL 32306-3064 Tel.: 850-644-4874 E-Mail: rbrinson@mailer.fsu.edu Web: fsu.edu/~circus/ |
Gregangelo & Velocity Circus Troupe 225 San Leandro Way San Francisco, CA 94127 Tel.: 415-242-4196 E-Mail: Jeffrey@gregangelo.com Web: gregangelo.com Hiccup Circus Hawaii’s Volcano Circus Educational Nonprofit Organizations RR 2, Box 4524 Pahoa, Hawaii, 96778 USA Tel./Fax: 808-965-8756 E-Mail: juggler@aloha.net Web: http://hiccupcircus.com Imperial Circus of China c/o Management One, LLC 7380 Sand Lake Rd., Ste. 350 Orlando, FL 32819 Tel.: 321-281-4000 E-Mail: john.regna@worldentertainment.net Web: imperialcircus.com Lazer Vaudeville 621 S.W. First Ave. Ocala, FL 34474 352-622-4404 Lazervaudeville@msn.com Mexican International Circus C/o Xentel DM 609 14th St. N.W., Ste. 300 Calgary, Alberta T2N 2A1 Canada Tel.: 1-800-563-3014 Web: www.Mexicancircus.com Neil Goldberg’s Cirque Cirque Productions Variety Arts Management 3803 N. 29th Ave. Hollywood, FL 33020 Tel.: 954-922-0888 E-Mail: info@cirqueproductions.com Web: cirqueproductions.com New Pickle Circus 755 Frederick St. San Francisco, CA 94117 Tel.: 415-759-8123 E-Mail: sfsca@sfcircus.org Web: circuscenter.org New Shanghai Circus P.O. Box 2205 Branson, MO 65615 Tel.: 417-335-2000 E-Mail: shacrobats2@aol.com Web: acrobatsofchina.com Russian American Kids Circus The Brad Simon Organization, Inc. 122 E. 57th St. New York, NY 10022 Tel.: 212-980-5920, ext. 12 E-Mail: barbara@bsoinc.com Swamp Circus Theatre 19 Wansfell Rd. Sheffield South Yorkshire S4 8BE England Tel.: 44-0-114-256-0962 E-Mail: swampcircus@btinternet.com Web: swampcircus.com |
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