FORBID STREET SHOWS WITH ANIMALS!

(Elephant used by beggar in THAILAND, there are others...)
You Excellency:

PLEASE START BY WATCHING THESE TWO VIDEOS TO BE INFORMED:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXV_Cuug324
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfBjzX5ZTJE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqgPFVG_EPE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=657pp-23vc4
(dancing bears and dancing goats)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dOvwjOVcYI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AHe18g1RH4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORncFW7WLtw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctd2hPw6QAs
(dancing monkeys and goats)
The videos above are from dancing bears shows in india and neighbour countries, and the dancing monkeys shows in India and Pakistan.
In both cases animals are prisioners for life, are used and abused, humiliated, and a very distasteful and bad example for children on what comes to respect for life and nature, and even species conservation. Wild animals should be in the wild.
The dancing monkeys:
"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated" Mahatma Gandhi.
There was a time and place for the zoos and the circuses and the shows that use animals and birds as props for human entertainment. But now the things has been changed animals should be treated with respect. We have always seen the street shows of animals, peoples use these animals to survive. There are many peoples who were doing these things in India and they only prosper because we let them. Street show of Animals is completely banned in India because of animal welfare organization Oipa and the animals lover Naresh Kadyan
Responsible travel is featuring higher and higher on tourist brochures and in the minds of ethical traveller. Ethical tourism is on the rise but sadly the issue of animal welfare in tourism is often overlooked.
Animals are exploited as tourism entertainment and attractions in many developing nations are often supported by travellers hailing from the west.
In Spain, tourists can awe at the Dancing Bear, in Thailand travellers can take a happy snap with a drugged Sumatran Tiger and in Indonesia people gather to see a Masked Monkey dance and perform just to name a few.
Such animal performances place enormous stress on animals and can involve violent training techniques. It's unnatural and demeaning for a wild animal to have to perform for the sake of "entertainment": no pain should be entertaining and no civilized country should give such bad examples to children. It is respecting life that makes us more civilized.
Responsible travel.com is the worlds leading online travel agent dedicated to responsible holidays.

Holly Foat, Policy & Web Content Manager at responsibletravel.com says that often the issues aren't clear cut. Caged animals, dancing bears and elephants playing football are just the tip of the iceberg.
Foat screens all the new holidays that join the website to make sure they meet strict responsible tourism criteria.
By visiting sites where animals are stroked, cuddled, made to perform or pose for photos, travellers are inadvertently funding the mistreatment.
Inadequate animal welfare also occurs under the guise of conservation from chained tigers at the Tiger Temple in Thailand to cuddling Pandas in China (Responsibletravel.com works closely with the Born Free Foundation to raise awareness of the potential problems associated with animal attractions). Sadly, it is the ignorance of the animal welfare issues which sustains these sub standard attractions.
Travellers need to be welfare savy, boycott attractions with known poor welfare standards and report mistreatment to their tour operator and the Born Free Foundation.

A prevalent issue is the Topeng Monyet Dancing Masked Monkey of Indonesia. The Topeng Monyet is a show performed by trained monkeys which have been taken from their natural habitat. The show can be found in various parts of Jakarta city, the capital of Indonesia and its islands of Bali and Lombok. It is a one animal circus performing door to door and although it is one of the most original forms of Indonesian entertainment it is one of the cruellest violations of animal rights.
They don't know that monkeys are not toys and they are sentient beings. Especially in Indonesia, the long-tailed monkeys are not protected and the show is legal.
Many Non Government Organisations focused on the protection and rights of animals are attempting to address these issues.
For 25 years, the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) has aimed to promote the concept of animal welfare in regions of the world where there are few, if any, measures to protect animals. Louise Fitzsimons, Media Manager at WSPA Australia says that :"...Cruelty, confinement, neglect and abuse means millions of animals worldwide pay a heavy price for tourist entertainment, many even pay with their lives. Tourist activities that involve the mistreatment of animals exist for one reason, tourists choose to support them! therefore more education to tourists worldwide should be provided!
Born Free (O.N.G. for these matters) responds to travellers concerns about animal exploitation in captivity or in the wild: and encourages the public to alert Born Free of any wild animal welfare problems they may see on their travels both at home and abroad, and yet: are they supported by higher power organizations?! no...not financialy or in any way...
UNWTO estimates that 20 per cent of global tourism today is ethical tourism and its growing three times as fast as the industry as a whole.

• Tourists in Thai bars pay to have their photo taken with baby gibbons
  
  


• In China, bears are forced to perform for the public: taken from their moms these intelligent animals grow in sadness and abuse: grow sick...
  
  


• Feeding live animals to predators in Chinese zoos is offered as a public spectacle
  
  


• A child is photographed sitting astride a tiger at the Tiger Temple in Thailand
  
  


• Wild animals are offered as cheap photo opportunities at Shanghai Wild Animal Park
  Which animals are used for the purpose of entertainment?
  A huge variety of animals are used to entertain people. The most obvious are the big charismatic mammals, such as elephants used in circuses, festivals or for begging throughout India and Asia, monkeys and gibbons offered as photographic props on tourist beaches, dolphins and sea lions entertaining the paying public in zoos and aquariums all over the world, tigers and other big cats used in expensive shows in Las Vegas and other glamorous cities, bulls and horses used in bullfighting in Europe and Latin America. However, many other animals are used for the purpose of entertainment, such as fish in restaurant tanks, caged birds, reptiles and snakes in street shows, and birds of prey in falconry displays. The list is endless.
  Where do these animals come from?
  Animals for use in entertainment come from many sources. Some are bred specifically for the purpose, such as domestic elephants in Asia, or birds of prey for falconry. Many are taken from the wild, and the trade in wild animals for this purpose is huge.
  Imagine tourists on a Thai beach resort paying to have their photo taken with a young gibbon on their shoulder. The gibbon will have been taken from its mother in the wild when it was very young so it can be to be compliant for its new owner. In order to get the young gibbon, its mother, and probably several other family members, will almost certainly have been killed.
  The horror doesn't end there; the young gibbon will be used by its owner to make money until it reaches puberty, when it will become aggressive and difficult to handle; at this point it may be sold on, abandoned or killed. If it is very lucky it may end up in a rescue centre. The owner will then buy another young gibbon, obtained by causing the death of several more. And this whole cycle is perpetuated because tourists pay a little money for what seems to be an innocent holiday photo.
  How are these animals kept and treated?
  Most animals in entertainment are simply used as a means of making money. The conditions in which they are kept are usually at best unsuitable, at worst barbaric and cruel. Often social animals such as primates are kept in isolation. Animals in travelling shows and circuses are forced to travel for hours on end, and held in isolation in tiny cages for almost all of their lives, to be brought out only for the few minutes of their performance. The people responsible for keeping them often have no training in animal welfare or husbandry, and the animals are often fed an inappropriate diet and given little or no enrichment.
  The techniques adopted to force animals to perform tricks are also often barbaric. Most trainers use some degree of negative reinforcement, in other words they train the animal by punishing it when it doesn't do what they want. The brutality of the training of elephants and big cats for circuses, in countries all over the world, has been exposed by a number of organisations, including Circus Exposed in North America (http://circusexposed.ca/).
  When these animals are confiscated by the authorities, or no longer wanted because they no longer serve their purpose, they are usually impossible to rehabilitate into the wild, and are often discarded or killed.
  Isn't there an educational value?
  People who use animals for entertainment often claim that they play an important educational role, giving people the opportunity to get close to wild animals and learn about the things they are able to do. However, it is well recognised that there is little or no educational value in people seeing animals that are not kept in conditions resembling their natural habitat, nor is there any educational value in watching animals in captivity perform tricks. "...exhibits of zoo animals must show the animal in a respectful way that emphasizes the animal's natural environment and behavior. Only then will the zoo provide the optimal animal-human connection that promotes conservation-mindedness among zoo visitors." from Marc Bekoff's Encyclopedia of Human-Animal relationships.
  Not a lot can be learned by looking at caged animals, especially when they are acting abnormally...
  The public feeding of live prey to big cats and other predators in Chinese parks has been defended as both a means of educating the public, and of the animals for release into the wild (so-called barbarisation training). However, Dr Zhang Li, formerly IFAW's China Director, said the so-called barbarisation training cannot revive tigers' predatory abilities and it serves no educational end. It only provides the audience with a cruel, bloody show, which may severely harm the psychological well-being of the children present Also, there is no evidence that the parks ever intend to release the predators into the wild most of the animals concerned are not even endemic to the regions in which they are held and even if they did, such releases rarely result in the survival of the released animals, so there is no conservation benefit.
  What about safety?
  There have been many documented incidents of animals used in the entertainment industry causing injury and even the death of their handlers and members of the public. Several have involved elephants used in parks and circuses, such as the death of a British nurse killed by a rampaging elephant at a Thai park in 2000 (see link), and the death of a bus driver and an elephant following a collision in Mexico in September 2008 (see link) . Wild animals are just that - keeping them in poor conditions, feeding them the wrong food, and forcing them to perform tricks while bringing them close to the public, makes them much more dangerous.
  What about conservation?
  Taking animals from the wild to use or trade in the entertainment industry can have devastating effects on wild populations. In Thailand, it is estimated that there are between 3,000 and 5,000 gibbons being held in captivity, as pets or for use in the tourist trade, even though the keeping of wild animals without permits was made illegal as far back as 1992. Gibbons are listed as vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered (depending on the species) by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and the populations of all species in the wild are decreasing.
  Parrots and macaws from Africa and Latin America, so sought after for their value as entertaining pets, are taken from the wild in large numbers in spite of many species being in decline; most of the captured animals do not survive their journey to the lucrative markets in Europe, North America and Asia. Yet the trade continues.
  Many, many species of animals are now threatened by human activities. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature in October 2008 estimated that nearly a quarter of all mammal species are threatened with extinction. The capture and trade in animals for use in entertainment is a significant contributor to this threat for many species.
  ACCORDING TO PETA THERE ARE STILL DANCING BEARS IN INDIA!
  
  
  "...Dancing bears in India are sloth bears that have been poached from the wild as tiny cubs, often by killing their mother. IT IS SAID THAT THESE SHOWS ARE OVER AND WERE FORBIDEN, BUT IN SMALL TOWNS AND HIDDEN SPOTS OR NEIGHBOUR COUNTRIES THE SAD SHOWS REMAIN NEVERTHELESS WITHOUT PROPER INSPECTION... Sloth bears are listed on Appendix 1 of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and all international trade in them is prohibited. As well as being poached for the dancing bear trade, bear parts are thought to have healing properties and bears are highly prized for use in traditional medicines...We are aware of some performing bears still in Nepal and are expected to enter India through border areas...there may be a few more dancing bears hidden away in remote areas, or in neighboring..."http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qf3joNwLMwQ in Russia and Nepal there are still dancing bears, in hidden parts of India there still might be , more effective inspection is required! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGEsDOLt764
  RUSSIA, NEPAL, BULGARIA, and, as the Indian authorities admit HIDDEN PARTS OF INDIA, (further from the main cities) may be found...
  So an international approach is in order!
  The Dancing Bears of INDIA are a tragic spectacle, which takes place as a cruel tradition. At the age of three to five weeks, tiny sloth bears are kidnapped and their mothers are killed. They then start the long journey to the Kalander village where they will start their training to become a real dancing bear. A WSPA (World Society for the Protection of Animals) report showed that sixty to seventy percent of the cubs that were taken from the wild died, even before they reached their destination. This was caused from dehydration, starvation and trauma.
  If the bears reach the Kalander village, the next ordeal in which the bears go through, is the piercing of their ultra-sensitive muzzle. The bear is held down by a group of men while an iron needle, previously heated in a coal fire, is inserted into the squealing bear cub. No anaesthetic is used for this. A control rope is then shoved into the piercing, which usually gets infected. When the rope attached to the draumatised bear is tugged and a heavy stick is clapped, the bear is motivated to lift its legs and %uFFFDdance%uFFFD.Before the bear is one year old, its incisor and canine teeth are ripped out and sold as lucky charms. These are usually fairly expensive to buy. As the toothless bear is unable to eat its normal diet, it is limited to lentils and chapatis. This often gives the bears terminal intestinal disorders.
  Approximately 1,200 bears in India go through this. The Kalanders earn their income through the bear dancing to music for tourists, for up to twelve hours a day on it tired, hind legs. The tourists throw money at the bear and think of it as great entertainment. This tragic spectacle is actually a tradition which is set back to the 16th century, when bears were forced to dance for the amusement of ruling classes. There is a law, which was made to stop the capturing and trading of bears in India under the Indian Wildlife Protection Act in 1972. Even thought this has been made illegal. This law barely exists. These bears are still seen along the roads of Delhi, Jaipur and Agra. The bears are sold for about 8,000 rupees and the owner earns around 3,000 rupees (which is the equivelant to sixty-six dollars) every month. The sloth bears normal life expectancy is approximately thirty years in its natural living environment. Sadly, India's dancing bears barely ever live past the age of eight. Once the bear is captured and tammed, it can never be returned to the wild. The only possible answer for these poor creatures is retirement in a sanctuary. If this horrible form of entertainment continues, this beautiful species will surely become extinct. What I would like the Indian Government to do is to completely ban the capturing of bears with a strong law enforcement, create a sanctuary for the bears saved from such cruelty and to help the Kalander people find new, useful jobs...
  WE WANT THIS HORROR TO STOP AT ONCE WHEREVER IT MAY OCCUR, THOUGH THE MOST ALARMING SITUATION OCCURS IN INDIA IN PAKISTAN (WITH THE GOATS, MONKEYS, SNAKES AND BEARS) , THAILAND KEEPS ALLOWING MANY USES AND ABUSES ON ANIMALS...SOME AS OTHER POOR OR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES. It so happens that these are nothing but begging skills and that nothing productive comes out of it! if there is poverty this certainly will not solve it and it is a country's government obligation to fight poverty and give surving skill to people. We would like the REFERED COUNTRIES to completely ban the capturing of bears, monkeys, snakes or other wild animals that should be in the wild and protected by international organizations, for these sad shows.
  Forbid the use of domestic animals on shows aswell; they too have rights and suffer.
  Support for rescued animals sanctuaries (economical, legal and others)
  We would like the reeforcement of international laws to protect them
  Reenforcment or creation of inspection and research on eventual hidden situations, and therefore illegal.
  Reeforcement of education policies/measures for environmental and ethical treatment of animals, both at schools and for adults too.
  Support ways to fight poverty in a productive way; begging is not a good way of life: any human being as the right to a job and help for their survival by the countries government. WE ALSO WANT THE BEARS TO BE RESPECTED AS INTELIGENT ANIMALS, AND NOT CHAINED ALL DAY, DEVELOPING STEREOTYPED BEHAVIORS: GOING INSANE. NO WORKING HARD LIKE A MACHINE WOULD, AND WITH THE SAME AMMOUNT OF AFECTION AS A MACHINE WOULD GET!
  Thank you for your time.
  
  
  
  
  (Dancing monkey in Pakistan or India, not sure)
  
  
  
  
  

(Elephant beggars in Thailand)