Since the secret footage filmed by Animal Defenders International (ADI), revealed the brutal mistreatment of Anne the elephant at Bobby Roberts Super Circus in Peterborough, animal activists have led heated protests against the circus and the issue has been thrust back onto the newspaper pages.

circus elephant performing

In the same week, Thurnscoe saw the visit from Circus Mondao whose travelling shows include a variety of local and exotic species of animals. Kami Kountcheva, an animal behaviour scientist, gives her opinion on the use of animals in circus shows.

The circus has always been something fascinating. At the age of seven my parents read me Astrid Lindgren’s Pippi Longstocking, a book about an extraordinarily strong little girl who lived alone in a house called Villa Villekulla with her monkey, Mr. Nilsson, and her horse. In one memorable chapter, Pippi went to the circus where she rode horses and elephants, walked a tightrope and matched strength with The Strong Adolph. The circus sounded magical and incredible to my youthful ears, I wanted to go there and see these amazing people, but especially these incredible, wild animals. Boy, were my dreams and innocent fascinations shattered when I found out the grim truth about what happens when the lights aren’t beaming, the smoke isn’t rolling and the music isn’t ringing.

Unnatural

The truth of the matter is that none of the animals asked to be performers, neither local nor exotic animals. They were thrust into that role and now, that is their existence: cages, music, travelling, noises, whips and smoke. These are all completely unnatural noises and environments for the animals which they are neither used to nor designed to live in. Many circuses incorporated animals like lions and tigers into their acts – two species which today considered vulnerable to extinction. But in addition to this elephants, horses, llamas, camels and many others can often be seen as well. Tigers, for example are very territorial animals and each male requires a vast area to live a healthy life. A cage just won’t do. The UK has become more stringent on the use of wild animals in circuses and today there is only one UK circus which does still use large cats. That’s all very well, but what about the other animals that are used?

Camels, llamas and zebras are also very often seen in circuses. One of the first things you ask about a camel is “Why does it have humps?” And the simple answer is to conserve water. The camel is built to live in hot, dry environments where water is scarce. Hundreds of years of evolution have made the camel as close to perfect to survive in heat as possible, and yet UK circuses are carting these animals up and down the UK, where the climate is considerably cooler, so that people might “ooh” and “ah”, while circus music booms around the tent.

I have no idea how the animals at Bobby Roberts Super Circus and Circus Mondao are treated.  Maybe they are unusual in pampering their animals, although the evidence in the case of Bobby’s suggests not. What I can say is that all animals, from huge elephants to tiny ponies, that are plucked out of their natural environments involuntarily and thrust into these stressful living conditions will suffer, the question is how much?. These stresses can result in complete mental instability in animals, leading to extreme stress and misery. Symptoms can range from continuous pacing and hair and weight loss to more serious behavioural changes like making themselves sick.

Training

The performances, which they are made to do, also take a lot of time and effort to perfect. In television, it is popularly said that presenters never want to work with children or animals because of their unpredictable nature. So, circuses have had to overcome this by making absolutely sure that the animals perform to the ringmaster’s satisfaction – training. This is effectively breaking the spirit of these wild animals and leaving them broken and submissive. In the olden days, that was frequently done by beating, but today, many circuses claim to use “positive reinforcement” to train their animals, meaning praise when they behave appropriately, not punishment when they don’t. That is definitely a step in the right direction, but whether all circuses practise positive reinforcement is not certain.

The Animal Welfare Act of 2006 is set to protect the animals used in shows, and making sure their conditions are as good as they can be. But whether it is a good thing to train wild animals in the first place is still hugely controversial. Is it really a good thing to take an animal adapted to living in certain conditions and environments, and taming it and changing its behaviour? Evolution has spent hundreds of years perfecting the way these animals act so they survive in their environments. Changing their behaviour means not only that we are defying what these animals have evolved to do and where they have evolved to be, but it also means that they can never be released into the wild – they wouldn’t last a month.

Once the animal is sufficiently submissive, the ringmaster, usually draped in a red, sequined coat and capped off with a black top hat, cracks a whip and points a stick and the animal jumps through hoops, climbs on podiums and stands on two feet to regale and entertain the masses.

the bright lights of the circus

Cruelty

The story of the Anne the elephant seems to me to be a prime example of mistreating animals which live in the circus and angry animal activist groups, and a sea of newspaper readers who were alerted to the shocking and sickening punching, kicking and stabbing of the animal are already protesting on the Anne’s behalf. The circus called occurrences like these “isolated incidents” when Bobby Roberts was away for a period of time and stated that he was deeply saddened by the event.

This led to protesters boycotting Circus Mondao this Wednesday, when they set up camp at the Rotherham dog racing ring, and opened up the show for the weekend. This circus said that their animals are not caged or chained, but live in pens and stables. This is a much better way of treating their animals, even though Rotherham still isn’t quite the East Asian desert for the camels or the African Savannah for the zebras.

Exploitation

Conservationists throughout the country will agree that something which is often neglected by people is that animals aren’t a human commodity. Each animal has a right to exist happily and healthily without being “useful” to a human. Places like circuses view their animals like dressy, feathery, sequined performers, or worse, attractions, to make money and draw in a crowd. And sadly, the crowds start to see these animals in the same way.

For the people who read Pippi Longstocking as little boys and girls, and dreamed of the wondrous circus performances, I have to say, there is nothing wonderful or magical about the animals in the circus. Ringmasters claim that they live a happy, healthy life, but taking animals out of their natural environment, taming them and using them is not healthy in any way. But the magic doesn’t have to end, there are many circuses throughout the UK, and ones as famous as “le Cirque de Soleil”, don’t use animals, but the magic is about the trapeze acts, the contortionists, the acrobats and the tightrope walkers.