Advocates For Amimal Rights, The Bahamas Humane Society, Animals Require Kindness Reearth And Concerned Individuals today condemned the invitation of the Circus of the Stars to The Bahamas stating that the use of animals in circuses, or any “acts”, is inhumane and cruel.
“We do not believe in animals being exploited for human entertainment” said a policy statement from The Bahamas Humane Society.
Sam Duncombe of REEARTH says: “These animals are forced to perform demeaning and humiliating acts, none of which are natural behaviours. They often face punishment and cruelty during the training process or if they fail to perform accurately. What message is this giving to our children about the treatment and respect of wild animals”.
PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) also state:
“Animals used in circuses live a dismal life of domination, confinement, and violent training. In the wild, bears don’t ride bicycles, tigers don’t jump through fiery hoops, and elephants don’t stand upright on their hind legs. The circus deprives animals of their basic needs to exercise, roam, socialize, forage, and play. Circuses portray a distorted view of wildlife.”[1]
Mrs Duncombe said “The invitation of a travelling circus can only further harm The Bahamas’ cultural perception of animals. We do our youth an injustice by exposing them to “showtime” images of wild animals, unable to respond naturally to their own environments, beaten or whipped into submission by owners, condoning the cruel practices that force them to perform in this way. The idea that it is funny to see wild animals coerced into acting like stupid, clumsy humans, or thrilling to see powerful beasts reduced to cringing cowards by a whip-cracking trainer is primitive and medieval”
Animal trainers have begun to realize the error of their ways and in the book ‘Elephant Tramp’, one such trainer, George Lewis, tells the story of a training routine for Sadie the elephant:
‘Sadie just could not grasp what we were trying to show her. In frustration she attempted to run out of the ring. We brought her back and began to punish her for being so stupid. We stopped suddenly, and looked at each other, unable to speak. Sadie was crying like a human being. She lay there on her side, the tears streaming down her face and sobs racking her huge body’.[2]
Research has shown there to be no educational benefits in exhibiting wild animals in circuses since the acts performed bare no relevance to the natural behaviours of the animals in the wild. Elephants in the wild travel in social groups daily throughout a 20 mile home territory whereas Elephants in circuses are chained to posts, kept in cages, often alone, and allowed movement only to perform for a few hours daily.
Additionally, the use of animals in circuses perpetuates the view that it is acceptable to force animals to perform tricks by force if necessary or be subjected to treatments that can harm their medical health. What can be the educational advantage of watching lions and tigers, whom are naturally afraid of fire, being forced to jump through burning hoops? They perform these tricks because they are more afraid of their owners, than of the fire itself. A sad, not educational, state of affairs.
Another consideration is the inherent risk to the public as over-stressed, captive animals sometimes escape or attack. Since 1990, 57 people have been killed and more than 120 seriously injured, by captive Elephants alone. In 1994, an Elephant killed her trainer and injured 12 spectators before being gunned down by almost 100 bullets while running terrified through downtown Honolulu. In Palm Beach, Florida, police officer Blayne Doyle, shot 47 rounds into Janet, the elephant who charged out of the Great American Circus arena with 6 children on her back. He has since sent a letter to police departments across the country urging them not to endanger their communities by using captive Elephants at fundraising events. Doyle lamented: “I think these Elephants are trying to tell us that zoos and circuses are not what God created them for. But we have not been listening.” [3]
Jane Mather of Advocates for Animal Rights asks if the Bahamian government has a contingency plan to control the escape of wild animals from the Circus of the Stars? Has it made provisions for the safety of these animals or consulted with animal rights organizations about the ethics of allowing a circus into the country? Has it considered the cultural ramifications or the tourism fall-out as a result of this and other animal exploitations?
For all of these reasons and more the following countries, cities and localities have issued bans (of varying severity) on the use of wild animals in acts: Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Ireland, Costa Rica, Singapore, Israel, India, Israel, and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) of Australia, the state of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Bogota (Columbia), Nevers, (France), and the following US locations: Pasadena, Encinitas Calif.; Stamford, Conn.; Hollywood, Lauderdale Lakes, Fla.; Quincy, Revere, Provincetown, Braintree Mass.; Takoma Park, Md.; Port Townsend, Wash; Boulder, Estes Park, Colo.; Orange County, N.C; and Redmond, Wash. Additionally, The UK government is considering the recommendation made by a specially commissioned group to ban the use of animals in circuses nationally.
Closer to home the government of Antigua and Barbuda recently took a giant leap forward in the protection of wild dolphins by revoking the decision to allow a private company to capture 12 wild dolphins from their waters. The secretary to the cabinet confirmed on February 23rd 2004 “The permission granted to Mr. John Mezzanotte to capture twelve (12) dolphins annually from Antigua waters is herby revoked.” This is in direct contrast to the action taken by the Bahamas government in 2003 to allow Atlantis to operate a dolphin facility in the latest phase of their development. “To date the public has not been informed of how many dolphins would be captured from the wild or brought into the Bahamas from other dolphin facilities to operate this venture” said Mrs Duncombe.
Mrs Duncombe continued “In all cases of animal welfare, exploitation, captivity, treatment and preservation, The Bahamas seems to be lagging behind”.
The Bahamas Humane Society, Advocates for Animal Rights, Animals Require Kindness, and REeARTH call for a national ban on acts involving wild animals in The Bahamas. This includes travelling circuses, flamingo dancing parades, dolphin “swims” and any type of display involving the exploitation of wild animals. It proposes that circuses only involving human acts be allowed into The Bahamas – such as the Canadian Cirque De Soleil. Wild animals need to be, in their native homes, surrounded by the forces of nature that have created them, socially intermingling with their families and competitive groups – NOT standing in cages, chained to concrete, enclosed in pens, forced to perform in unnatural ways and treated with violence.
