Elephants
Babies can grow up with their parents, and can form close relations with other family and herd members. Being a nomadic people, they may travel up to 25 miles in one day. Herds take direction from the eldest female in the group.
Zebras
In their native land of Africa, may travel 3 miles per day. Females are known to make yearly expeditions to their birth place. Zebras are mostly nocturnal, spending time foraging and playing at night.
Lions, Tigers, and other Felines
Felines are generally solitary animals, coming together only for mating. Mothers and cubs form social units, until the cubs grow up and leave on their own. There may only be 1 male in a few miles radius.
Monkeys and other Primates
Monkeys and other primates live in families, and participate in social activities that are eerily human.
All Animals
The majority of circus animals are native to lands other than North America. Where they live, they have adapted to their own specific climate over millions of years. Are free to gather food however they choose, whether it be eating plants and leaves like the elephant, or pursuing it's hunting instincts, like the Tiger. Can walk around on the dirt, take baths in water, hide in the grass, climb or rub up against a tree.
IN THE CIRCUS:
Elephants
Don't spend time with family; only see friends during performances or rehearsals. Babies don't grow up with mother or other relatives, they are generally stolen from parents to begin training. Are forced to travel around the country in trucks, cages, or railroad cars; constantly chained to keep from running away.
Zebras
Confined to human boundaries, made to travel the country in trucks or railroad cars 50 weeks per year. Constrained daytime activities, including performances, force the zebra to follow diurnal rituals.
Lions, Tigers, and other Felines
Are required to live with other felines, often of a different species. Males cannot follow their instinctual drive to be separate from others, mother's don't have the opportunity to nurture their cubs.
Monkeys and other Primates
The USDA has reported that baboons and macaques show signs of psychological distress at circuses, such as rocking, weaving, shaking, and cage bar licking and chewing.
All Animals
Spend approximately 50 weeks of the year traveling around the country, where the climate is controlled by where they may be. This means anything from brutal heat to frigid cold. Are fed predetermined diets at specific times, which may consist of food pellets, dried grass that is far from fresh, and meat that may be rotting. Rarely get to touch anything but metal cages, trucks, and railroad cars. May never touch a tree.
So, What's Wrong With the Circus ?
"The circus, a humiliating ritual, tends to reinforce myths of animal stupidity, inferiority, and willingness to submit to human domination. The circus hones dominionist values by reducing aimals to toys and clowns, and hence nature is reduced to a plaything, an object of human whimsey." 1 This is illustrated through the comparison of circus versus nature.
Animals are living beings. Respect them. Please don't participate in their humiliation and degradation. Circuses can be fun without animals.
For more information on circuses or animal liberation in general, contact:
1. From "An Unnatural Oder", bu Jim Mason, available thorugh Continuum Publishing Company.
