Circuses
Around the world, circuses still use captive animals such as lions, tigers, bears, monkeys, elephants, horses, dogs, goats, pigs, and ponies to perform unnatural tricks for entertainment. Circus owners often claim that their shows help with conservation and play an educational role - the realities of the circus industry, however, present flaws to these claims. Although the show itself may seem exciting and entertaining, attending the circus perpetuates the idea that it is acceptable to use animals for entertainment, and deprive them of their natural interactions, behaviours, and environments.
The Industry
Animals circuses date back to Ancient Rome, but have recently began to lose their social license due to the animal welfare concerns of the public. As a result, many countries, states and cities have banned or restricted the use of animals - in particular, wild or exotic animals. With this, there has also been a rise in animal-free circus shows, which focus on impressive human talents.
Breaking News
After decades of protests and petitions, in March 2021, Stardust silently retired the lions and monkeys from their acts. This is a huge win for the animals, as it means there are no more wild animals in Australian circuses! Stardust claim the decision was due to rising insurance costs. A decline in show attendance due to animal welfare concerns would have also been a contributing factor.
While this is a huge win, Animal Liberation is still fighting to have domestic animals retired from circuses, and are pushing for a legislative ban on the use of animals in circuses.
Standards & Welfare Issues
In Australia, there are no national welfare standards for circus animals. Some states have codes of practice or legal riquirements, however, according to the RSPCA, these focus on preventing cruelty rather than welfare [1]. The following section will discuss Australian standards and welfare issues.
Travelling, Performing, and Rest
In Australia, animals must be given just one month of rest in any 12 month period. While travelling, the animals must be given a ten minute stop every two hours and can be transported for 48 hours without exercise [2 PDF]. The transport wagons, cages, and display areas, are much smaller than the space an animal would naturally need.
According to the Australian standards, the animals can be given just 45 minutes exercise, 4 days of every week, and it can be in the form of training sessions and/or public performance – meaning no time to exercise as they please. This standard does not apply when the circus is travelling or when the animals are in a layover period. Additionally, all animals must have access to a display cage for a minimum of six hours each day during daylight hours – meaning they can spend 18 hours in smaller enclosures [2 PDF].
Animals in Captivity and Life on the Road
Life in captivity is stressful for any animal, and we do not want to take away from this fact when specifically discussing wild animals. The industry claims that because the animals being used today were bred and kept in captivity for their entire lives, they have lost their natural instincts - but this is untrue. It takes thousands of years for an animal’s behaviour to adapt and evolve to their surroundings. The loss of instincts cannot occur in just 21-generations [3 PDF].
While lions and lionesses spend up to 16 hours a day resting, in their natural habitat they would roam up to 12km a day [4]. During this time they are free to run, leap, hunt, and climb as they wish. Those who are confined to life on the road are denied these behaviours and are kept in small pens (just 20m² for one individual and an additional 10m² for each extra animal) that prevent them from being able to run and a wagon with a few “toys” to entertain themselves [2 PDF].
The “enrichment” Stardust lions received.
Credit: Fraser Coast Chronicle
Rhesus Macaque monkeys are the most common species used in circuses. In the wild, these intelligent animals spend up to 9 hours exploring their homes (which can be an area of 15km²), travelling over 3km in a day [5, 6]. They also enjoy interacting with up to 200 individuals! In the circus, their enclosures can be as little as 5m² [2 PDF]. Those stuck in the circus can experience boredom, depression, frustration, stress, and become aggressive [7].
Stereotypies
The captive life, travelling, and training methods can cause the circus animals to develop stereotypic behaviour – defined as a repetitive, invariant behaviour pattern with no obvious goal or function – such as pacing, bar biting, and swaying, as a result of frustration, boredom and depression [8, 9, 10]. The below footage shows animals at Stardust circus exhibiting these signs:
Degrading Acts
While circuses claim they are ‘educational’ for kids, the display of animals is far from natural, from the costumes to the acts themselves. A monkey, for example, would never ride a pony or do a handstand walk. Horses would not walk on two legs or prop their legs on another horses back. And goats would not climb ladders.
While it does demonstrate that these animals are intelligent, this should not be a reason to exploit them in the name of entertainment.
Training Methods
Australian animal welfare standards state that only positive reinforcement training is allowed, however, it is unclear what goes on behind the scenes [11]. Exposés of animals around the globe have shown that animals are trained by negative reinforcement, such as being beaten, prodded with electric prods, controlled with choke ropes, and deprived of food and water [12].
Elephant training overseas
Credit: PETA ASIA
Loud noises and bright lights
Circuses are full of unnatural noises and lights. The music, cheers, and laughter are incredibly distressing to animals and can damage the delicate structures of the animals middle and inner ear. Animals hearing – particularly lions and dogs – are far more sensitive than ours and should not be regularly exposed to unnaturally loud environments [13].
Additionally, the animals spend most of their life next to busy roads, with sounds, lights, and fumes, extremely different to their natural habitat.
Horses performing unnatural tricks.
Credit: Stardust Circus
What can you do?
As consumers, we hold the power to end the suffering of animals being used in the circus industry. Without our money, these facilities, events, activities and would simply cease to exist, breaking the cycle and freeing the animals from a lifetime of misery in confinement and being forced to perform.