Salon.com: Animal rights groups wasted no time in weighing in on the announcement that the Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus is closing in May.
In a statement sent Saturday night, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said it “heralds the end of what has been the saddest show on earth for wild animals, and asks all other animal circuses to follow suit, as this is a sign of changing times.”
2 comments:
When I was younger I got the chance to see the Ringling Bros. Circus, and I will have to admit for a little kid it was an amazing sight to see. There were so many flashing lights, tricks done by acrobats and huge animals, which were my favorite part. But knowing today what I know about animal rights, especially in entertainment, I have to admit I am rather glad to hear about the circus closing. From the entertainment side it is very sad to see such a well-known, often seen show close, but I have to agree with animal rights groups that this is amazing. Most of the tricks the animals were able to do was based on the concept of fear, especially with fire, and that is not something that should be acceptable in the entertainment industry. I recently saw an ad against the new movie A Dog's Purpose showing a German shepherd being forced into dangerous water. Even though it was regulated, the dog did not know the difference and could not know that people were on stand by to save him. This goes for animals in the circus, all they know is that fire is dangerous but that they have to do it in order to live. I am rather glad that the circus is closing, especially since they were so reluctant to do the show without animals.
I feel very mixed about the closing of the Ringling Bros. Circus. The Circus has a very long history of mistreating wild animals, but the company did decide last May to limit its animal performances (by cutting the elephant show) and is now in a financial crisis and closing because of declining tickets as a result. I am not particularly happy that this happened. We should not be rejoicing that a long-standing and well known company is closing as a result of starting to wean out the use of animals in performance. Because of this – other organizations which mistreat animals for entertainment will be even more hesitant to stop, because, apparently, the only reason a significant amount of people went to the circus was to watch animals preform “tricks”. Now, whenever we try to promote a company ceasing its use of trained animals for entertainment this Circus and its closing will be cited. The animal rights community should not be rejoicing but rather mourning this failure to transition a once cruel industry into a more responsible and compassionate one.
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