By: Kathleen Godfrey, Guest Columnist
The circus is coming to town Jan.19-22, but you should know what Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey do behind closed doors before you start dreaming of dancing elephants and juggling monkeys.
Have you ever wondered how the circus gets animals to perform “tricks”? The answer is not a pleasant one. Circuses do not use methods involving love, respect or a rewards system. The methods used are fear and cruelty. Ringling Brothers would like you to believe that these animals enjoy performing for an audience, but the truth is, the animals are afraid of what will happen if they don’t.
The use of whips, electric prods, bull hooks (a weapon resembling a fireplace poker) and beatings are all part of the teaching methods used by Ringling Brothers. Please open your mind and educate yourself about what these animals go through. Once you have, you won’t be able to enjoy these few hours of “entertainment” because you will know that it means a lifetime of misery for our fellow creatures.
This state of abuse is no way for a human to live, and it is no way for an animal to live. Remember the scene in Dumbo when the mother elephant is protecting her baby, Dumbo, only to be beaten with bull hooks, whipped, chained up and separated from her baby? Or maybe you’ve seen the film Water for Elephants, in which animal cruelty was part of everyday circus life? Unfortunately, that is still how the circus operates. We are all animals and deserve to live a happy, healthy and free life!
Our animal brothers and sisters are intelligent beings and feel pain and fear in much the same way that humans do. If we can’t justify treating a human being in such a way, how can we justify treating animals in such a way? There is no justification – it is senseless cruelty.
The circus is not “protecting” the animals. Some may argue that the wild is not safe for animals due to risks of poachers and such, but the counter to that argument is that this world is full of risks and we are allowed to be free. Freedom in a risk-filled world is a better life than one in which you are forced to perform, beaten and made to travel in tight confines with inadequate access to sunlight and fresh air – a miserable existence.
Ringling Brothers is not showing you happy, healthy animals – they are parading around animals forced to live a life of cruelty, a life of hell.
A rule of thumb for animals: if you wouldn’t do it to your family dog, you shouldn’t do it to another living creature.
Before contributing to this senseless cruelty, learn the facts and make an informed decision. Can you really sleep well at night knowing that your hard-earned money went to support an institution based on fear and abuse? Chances are, if whoever you are planning to take to the circus knew what goes on behind the scenes, they wouldn’t want to contribute to this cruel treatment of animals. Sometimes it is only through learning the awful, ugly truth that change can come about.
Please visit jaxprotest.com for more information.
Email Kathleen at [email protected].
