BAN ANIMALS IN CIRCUSES
- by: Ruth McD
- recipient: Barack Obama, President of the United States, U.S. Senators, U.S. Legislators
Life under the big top is not the "wholesome," fun-loving, educational experience the circus industry would like you to think it is. For the animals, life is a monotonous and brutal routine of boredom, stress and pain. In short, traveling animal acts perpetuate animal cruelty, inhumane care, public safety hazards and distorted images of wildlife.
Circus animals are confined virtually all of their lives in barren conditions, while forced to suffer extreme physical and psychological deprivation:
- Virtually 96 percent of their lives are spent in chains or cages.
- 11 months a year they travel over long distances in box cars with no climate control; sleeping, eating, and defecating in the same cage.
- When allowed out, these animals are trained using extreme "discipline" such as whipping, hitting, poking, and shocking with electrical prods.
- Even though the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) sets minimum standards of care, most itinerary stops are not inspected.
Wild animal acts also pose a significant threat to public health and safety:
- Circus elephants may carry tuberculosis (TB), and can infect humans with the bacterial disease. Public records show that many circuses have used TB-positive elephants in public performances.
- Circuses are not required by law to carry emergency euthanasia equipment and local law enforcement agencies may be forced to deal with a loose animal.
- Since the 1990s circuses have been responsible for over 100 human injuries worldwide.
I am writing this in protest of our state allowing the continuous use of circuses to expose wild animals for human enjoyment. Just last month Ringling Brother's circus was at the RBC center exposing animals for human excitement, when they have been under investigation for their continuous use of harsh treatment to circus animals.
How could you allow a circus to come into your state and not know or even investigate to find out if they practice proper treatment of circus animals? This is the twenty first century%u2026Haven't Roman times passed and we are living like civilized human beings? If you knew that the circus had a reputation for abusing child entertainers, would you have allowed them to perform in your state? Or are children more prized possessions then an elephant or lion being beaten to ensure they make your children our grandchildren laugh?! It is naive and ignorant to believe that circus animals are happy and enjoying life while being confined, caged, trapped, and made to perform for the desire of humans to make money and be entertained.
Why have we allowed the use of circus animals to continue when we are living in a modern state and have modern uses of entertainment that should satisfy any and every human without exploiting animals? We have made leaps to ban smoking indoors, however, we maintain the ability to show ignorance and a blind eye to the welfare of animals who do not deserve to be showcased at the sake of human greed.
Please put a stop to allowing our state to expose the hurt and pain of these caged animals that have to live their lives on the road and away from their natural environments. Do we as humans no longer have the capacity to balance common sense and law?
Do we have to continue to reason with what is simply and obviously Right, but ignored at the sake of lack of emotion and loss of money?
Please rise above the ignorance of so many others and put a STOP to this heinous act that allows humans to maintain their greed and inability to care for animals at the cost of their own enjoyment!
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