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Abuse of animals in circuses
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Most people have no idea how horribly animals are treated in the circus. Everyone loves the circus as a child, but they wouldn’t if they knew that the tigers and elephants were abused to get them to do the tricks that the kids love. Most circus animals spend 96% of their lives in cages or chained up. (PAWS. "Enjoy the Circus? The Animals Don't." Web Accessed March 14, 2015.) They are starved and abused to do things that are unnatural to their normal behavior. Tigers, like most animals, are instinctively afraid of fire, yet tigers and lions are forced to jump through hoops of fire and have been burned doing so. (Big Cat Rescue Corp. "Circus." Web Accessed March 14, 2015.) There is no positive reinforcement to train animals in the circus. Animals in the circus are constantly abused. Trainers use horrible tools such as: whips, chains, tight collars, hooks, muzzles and electric prods to get animals to perform. (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. "Circuses." Web Accessed March 14, 2015.) The animals are never comfortable in there environment. The only exercise the animal gets is when they have to train, and when they are performing. Being constantly mistreated and abused is not good for the animal’s mental health and wellbeing.
In some cases animals kill their handlers. Elephants are known to bolt away from their handler and run around in the street until they are caught and put back into their small confinement they are forced to call home. There are 35 cases recorded of elephants attacking and killing handlers since the year 2000. (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. "Circuses." Web Accessed March 14, 2015.) Not only is it not safe for the animals, but it is not safe for the handler to be around animals who are mentally unstable because of the treatment and stress they are put
Keeping animals locked in cages, bored and cramped up in such a small space is an awful sight to show the children. It creates an image in the little minds of children that animals are to be treated like they don’t matter. They say Zoos are a place where children can learn about the wild, exotic animals, but in reality it doesn't teach them anything only that they are meant to be caged up, which is wrong. Also, it is really painful to see the animals bored and lonely, so why should people keep letting them do this to these beautiful creatures. Animal captivity for entertainment should end to let them go to their rightful home.
The respect and care that is demonstrated through the use of positive reinforcement cause the animal to want to be around the trainer more often and enjoy being asked to do things (“Behavior Matters,” n.d.). Other training techniques can be effective, but PRT promotes benefits such as “reducing distress, increasing choice and control for the animal, and improving well-being” that other training methods do not (Veeder et al., 2009, para.
Animals not only experience cruelty from their caretakers, but from visitors as well. As a result of this, the abuse can cause psychological damage and varies from the animals being teased, yelled at and having objects thrown at them (OccupyTheory, 2015, List of Cons of Zoos, para. 4). Animals that are restricted to zoo living arrangements show a great deal of abnormal behaviors as well as mental health issues. For example, animals in captivity easily become lonely and bored when deprived of their natural necessities. Due to stressful living situations, many animals begin to show signs of a psychological condition known as zoochosis, a repetitive and multiple obsessive behavior (Netivist 2016, Cons of Zoos, para. 2). Some symptoms of repetitive and obsessive behaviors that have are common include, but not limited to self-mutilation, pacing up and down or rocking back and forth (Isacat, 2015, Chapter.8). According to the database on the animal advocacy organization, Born Free USA website (http://www.bornfreeusa.org/reports/exoincidents.php) there is over 1300 recorded incidents of "deadly and dangerous captive wild animal incidents" that have occurred since 1990 (ResearchBuzz, 2010). One of the most recent incidents involved Harambe, a western lowland gorilla that lived in the Cincinnati Zoo. Animal psychological and former head of Zoo Atlanta, Terry Maple stated, "Its difficult to say whether
Preview: So today, I would like to attempt to persuade you that circuses should stop using animals, with a ...
The life of a circus animal is hard and demanding. It is not an acceptable way of life for an animal. Circuses would quickly lose their appeal if the public were more aware of their mistreatments of these animals. Many circuses do not have much money and as a result the animals suffer from inadequate care. These animals spend most of their time in small cages used for transportation. The Animal Welfare Act provides cage requirements, but many circuses fail to follow this law. Even the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey circus was cited for 65 violations over a two-year period according to Florence Lambert. When traveling, animals spend hours, even days between sites in confinement..
When bred in captivity, animals are oblivious to their natural habitats and how to socially interact with their species. The article “Animals Used as Entertainment” lists rodeos, circuses, bullfighting, horse racing, cockfighting, dog fighting, and zoos as examples of the many ways animals are used in entertainment. Circuses and zoos are the two most relevant forms of animal mistreatment. Both of these are sources of entertainment for children and adults. Zoos declare that they are used for mostly educational purposes and preserving various species, but the reality is that they fall short on both (“Animals Used”).
Currently there are three main legislations affecting and protecting the welfare of wild animals in travelling circuses, The Welfare of Wild Animals in Travelling Circuses (England) Regulations 2012, the Animal Welfare Act 2006 and the performing Animals (regulation) Act 1925, (DEFRA,2013; Rees,2013). The legislations in place recognise that both wild a...
This essay proposes to investigate the ethics of training, and subsequently utilising, circus animals for the purpose of human entertainment. Therefore, the essay will respond to the question “what moral or ethical obligations do humans have in respect of other animals? How can these obligations be filled?” It should be noted that a distinction is made between morals, which are personal standards of behaviour – and ethics – which are moral principles that govern societal behaviour. This essay will focus on ethical obligations. Specifically, the treatment and training methods of circus animals will be researched to ascertain what, if any, physical or psychological discomfort results for the animals. More precisely, investigations will be undertaken to gauge circus animals’ quality of life, and thus arguments that circus animals both enjoy and loathe this treatment will be explored. Additionally, specific cases of cruelty to circus animals, together with various legislation that either allows or prohibits such behaviours, will be examined.
And this isn’t the only time a captive animal has turned on its trainer. Working with a predator that kills even when it’s not hunting is taking a risk lions can be trained but they cannot be tamed. in 2010 two lions turned on their trainer Oleksie Pinko during a show in the Ukraine, Pinko walked away with only minor injuries. No matter how long you work with exotic animals they will always be unpredictable and dangerous, Roy Horn of the Siegfried and Roy duo worked with tigers for most of his life, but however in 2003 Roy was attacked by a seven year old white tiger named Montecore. In 2008, a liger at Safari's Animal Sanctuary in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma killed a volunteer, thirty-two year old Peter Getz.
“Virtually 96 percent of their lives are spent in chains or cages,” and “11 months a year they travel over long distances in box cars with no climate control; sleeping, eating, and defecating in the same cage,” as stated by PAWS, Protective Animal Welfare Society, is one of the many organizations that strives to protect animals right and sheds light on this horrific situation that should be stopped at once. This is an insight of what the animals have to endure just for our entertainment. PAWS also discuses when these animals are eventually allowed out of their cages they undergo “extreme ‘discipline’ such as whipping, hitting, poking, and shocking with electrical prods,” for training purposes to ensure that the performance goes without any complications. The transportation of theses animals is cruel and unusual no matter how it is looked at.
Animals should not be held captive in zoos because it is inhumane and unfair to the animals. There are so many records of terrible things that have happened to animals in zoos over the past few centuries, the go under the radar too often. Too few people even know about these animal care atrocities, and therefore the New York Times decided to bring light upon this situation. The Times did a first-of-its-kind analysis of 390 elephant fatalities at accredited U.S. zoos over the past 50 years (Berens 3). It found that most of the elephants died from injury or disease linked to conditions of their captivity, from chronic foot problems caused by standing on hard surfaces to musculoskeletal disorders from inactivity caused by being penned or chained for days and weeks at a time.
Zoos don't really care about their animals they just want to entertain their guests. Onlookers are entertained as a cow fights for her life trying to throw off two lions according to the article,”changing attitudes to zoos. ”also In 2009 a south korean tv show filmed a small terrified bear being placed inside a tiger enclosure at everland park according to the article ,”world's leading zoo association accused of overlooking horrific cruelty.”
Some aspects of Animal abuse are completely avoidable, the cruelty brings no scientific knowledge, food, or testing. In the entertainment industry “wild and exotic animals are trained through the use of intimidation and physical abuse. Former circus employees have reported seeing animals beaten, whipped, poked with sharp objects and even burned to force them to learn their routines!”(dosomething) Cruelty for entertainment is not a fair trade by any means.
To support this, animals in zoos get a terrible disease called Zoochosis. This disease is bad. Zoochosis causes animals to bite their skin, bob their heads, bite the bars of their cage, and do other unsafe things. Would you want to be so stressed out that you wanted to harm yourself? Zoochosis also causes animals to get mentally and physically sick.
For the most part, circuses do not publicize the treatment their animals receive. The most probable explanation for this is that the animals are abused as a means of training