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Circus, Amusement or Torture?

People laugh and clap their hands when they see all the tricks animals make at circuses. But how are these animals treated? Many animals which live at circuses have lost their temper and attacked people in the audience. Is there any reasons why? Of course there are reasons. Many people are against holding animals at circuses, mostly because they think it’s unethical and insulting. Is it possible for the animals at the circus to live a normal life?

Where do the animals come from?
The animals at circuses don’t have to be captured from the jungle or from their free life, they can be taken from places where they breed the animals. Anyway, they have no right to decide where they want to live their life, which would presumably be in freedom. An elephant would probably not walk voluntarily to a circus and ask if they can get a job there. So is it right to use these animals for amusement when all their natural instincts only can be satisfied in free life?

How do they make animals do things that aren’t natural for them?
In reality the point is to make animals do things they aren’t used to, this is what people are being amused of. It’s a big insult for the animals, show after show they have to entertain people who think it´ s fun to see the animals do unnatural things. Would a tiger really jump trough a fired circle just for fun? It would probably not. A European organisation called Animal Defenders has
done an investigation about how animals are treated at circuses. They have taped more than

400 hours when animals are getting hit by the trainers to make them perform tricks. Trainers use many different tactics, for example; starving, isolation, fright and threat, muzzles, drugs, punishment and reward –systems, whips, electric staffs or pistol shots. Of course there are differences between circuses, how good they take care of the animals but one thing is quite logical, an animal would probably not make these tricks which are totally unnatural for them if they didn’t had to.

An elephant at a circus which I visited when I was a kid.
Would the elephant do this trick if it didn't had to?

Diseases
Animals at circuses are exposed to a different kind of stress than those who lives in freedom. They mostly become very bored and they aren’t born to handle that sort of stress. The result can be that they get physically ill, they can get stereotyped behaviour, for example, go to and fro or just stand swinging from side to side. Physical diseases can be that the joints can be worn out because of unnatural positions. All the animals don’t have to get diseases, it’s surely different how they are taken care of at the circus.

Danger for people
It has happened that animals have been so frustrated of their captivity that they’ve attacked trainers and other people. In the Nordic countries serious incidents have happened in recent years. In 1994, an elephant from the Circus Beneweises in Denmark, trampled a trainer and two from the audience to death. In Sweden, in 1996, an elephant from Circus Mustang got into the audience and terrified the people.

Circus Maximum – Their opinion
I called the circus to ask some questions. Maybe they can’t tell the whole truth about the circus, then they would probably not be able to continue. I asked how they treated their animals and the girl I talked to told me that their animals live a good life and they didn’t hit the animals, they just trained them and gave them encouragement. She told me it has to be fun for the animals and therefore they play with the animals as if everything was a game. She also told me that their transports aren’t as long as animal defenders declare, they make stops every hour.

My opinion
I think that animals never have been born to amuse people in a way like this. Every breed has its natural instincts and the right to live a normal life. Animals are not born to live in circumstances like this, be used by people who only want to make money. My opinion is that no one needs circuses, I think it’s completely useless. There are hundreds of ways to amuse people where animals aren’t getting utilized and insulted. Animals live in more or less good circumstances, at some circuses they might be taken care of in a very good way but I do think that there are no way they can live a normal life.

Have you ever thought about the ethical aspect on circuses or do you just think that it’s something amusing and fun?

Note: The facts I found about circuses are written by an organisation called Animal rights of Sweden and I’ve also read a text written by Sören Nordgren so what I’ve written about circus aren't my own experiences.