Circuses

Peta.org on circuses

PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, is the largest animal rights organization in the world and has over 2 million members. PETA focuses on animal rights in four different categories: "on factory farms, in the clothing trade, in laboratories, and in the entertainment industry."(PETA). This organization argues that animals that are in circuses are treated horribly through training tactics and demands. No animal willingly performs the stunts that they are forced to do. Peta states, "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." The training tactics that are used are very inhumane and torturous. The trainers use punishment and deprivation to control the animals (PETA). The Ringling Bros. circus go to violent extremes to train their animals, "elephants are beaten, hit, poked, prodded, and jabbed with sharp hooks, sometimes until bloody"(PETA). Baby elephants are even taken from their mothers at their vulnerable stage. Not only are the animals abused, they are also kept in horrible conditions when they are traveling. One or two animals are kept in tiny cages with hardly any space to move around (PETA). The animals travel in extreme weather conditions and hardly get the basic necessities to live. Some animals have even died because they were denied food and water. Animals that are mistreated in circuses also become a public danger. There have been many instances where animals try to escape from the circuses, causing harm to the audiences and the trainers. Elephants have ran through the streets trying to get away from the circuses, causing harm to pedestrians. There is no way for circuses to treat animals right, so the best circuses are the animal free ones.