CIRCUS

http://www.animalsaustralia.org/media/in_the_news.php?article=1995

In her article, “The Controversy Comes to Town,” Terra Sword talks about a specific case regarding the banning of circuses in an Australian city of Lismore. Circus owner Jan Lennon was denied the right to perform with her animals and the rest of the Stardust Circus crew when animal rights advocate Amber Hall took the matter into her own hands and joined forces with the Lismore City Council to prevent their ability to do so. Sword skillfully switches points of view to address each side of the argument and get incites from both parties.

In the article, Hall claims that, “animal circuses are inherently cruel with animals constantly confined to cages, pens, and trucks,” also mentioning that “Lismore City Council has declared animal circuses as cruel and thus against the social values of community.” Holder of a law degree, she tried to and succeeded in convincing the City Council to deny Lennon the right to perform. Her desires of doing so were in attempts to achieve the goal of decreasing the popularity of animals in the circus, the accomplishment of which would bring her, and the rest of the animal rights activists, closer to the passing of the law that would actually ban the practice as she believes that even though “it is still lawful to have animals in a circus, that doesn’t make morally acceptable.”

On the other side of the ring however, Lennon is attempting to fight for “the only life she’s ever known.” The circus owner claims that she’s had the lions “forever and a day,” also adding that “they’ve been born and bred in captivity and don’t know any other life,” which indeed brings up a good point in the argument. Who is to judge if lions are content with the life they have at the zoo? Like Lennon mentions, they don’t know life otherwise, and “don’t know what the wild is.” If the circus was to go out of business and the lions were to be let go there is a potential that they indeed would not survive in the wilderness. Even though some, and in this case Hall, may argue that the lion’s life and participation in the circus is “absolutely pathetic” and perhaps even unnatural for an animal who has perpetually been called the “King of the Jungle,” so may the life of a modern day actor be criticized similarly.

Animal abuse is, of course, immoral in any case and should be prevented the best way possible. However, if “anyone can come and watch a training session [at the circus] any time they want, and there is never any cruelty,” and if one truly devotes themselves to the upbringing and wellbeing of the animals like Jan Lennon claims she does, why not let the show and its participants go on?