Why are we concerned about wild animals in circuses?
Few legal protections exist for animals who are displayed in circuses. On the federal level, the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) requires that minimum standards of care and treatment be provided to warm-blooded animals traveling with circuses. However, violations of the AWA are an everyday occurrence in circuses.
Animals in circuses spend up to 11 months of the year traveling. For thousands of hours, over long distances, they may be chained, transported in vehicles that lack climate control, and forced to stand or lie in their own waste.
Performing animals such as elephants, lions, and tigers endure years of physical and psychological suffering in traveling acts. The tricks that animals are forced to perform - night after night - are frightening, unnatural, and even painful. Standard circus industry practice is to use bullhooks and other objects to poke, prod, strike, shock, and hit animals in order to "train" them — all for a few moments of human amusement.
Sometimes the animals respond aggressively to this abuse, injuring their handlers, trainers, and even the public. They occasionally escape from their train cars or their temporary enclosures, risking potentially fatal traffic accidents and injuries to themselves and others. For a list of circus animal incidents, see Born Free USA's website. There has not yet been a recorded incident in Massachusetts, but there is no reason it couldn’t happen here. Undoubtedly, the problems that lead to these incidents happen everywhere.
Circuses using animals often boast that they are working to conserve endangered species in the wild and are educating the public about these animals. There is far more money to be made in breeding endangered animals for public display and performance than in addressing the real issues, such as habitat degradation, that threaten wild populations. Endangered animals born in circus "conservation" programs have never been released into the wild.
