When I was young, my dad took my sister and I to the circus. Acrobats, clowns, and animal trainers alike hypnotized the audience with tricks. However, the most vivid memory I have from that day isn’t of the acts, it’s of the elephants. Their scarred faces were sad and worn, their ears sagged, and their feet dragged when they walked. It was clear they were miserable.
My eyes were again opened later that year when we took our annual school trip to the local zoo and looked on as animals placed in their pens with sad eyes and limited space. Since then my love of animals has only grown, as has the need to protect our planet’s creatures. With the extinction of species on the rise we need to understand one thing: confining animals to cells and traveling torture shows do not promote education or conservation in any way.
Let’s start with the (sometimes) lesser of the two evils, zoos. Yes, zoos protect animals from poaching, provide food and shelter, and allow animals to bask in adoration from staff and captive audiences. However, we must ask ourselves whether this is enough? If someone protected you from harm, gave you meals, housed you, and stopped by several times a day to look at you through a window and comment on how cute you were, would you be happy? Before you answer know this, keep in mind that you wouldn’t get to choose what you got to eat or where you lived the rest of your life.
This would be even more miserable if you’d spent your childhood somewhere like Florida and were then forced to move somewhere like Buffalo with cold winters and obvious season shifts. This happens all the time though, places like the Buffalo zoo contain animals such as Asian elephants and Siberian tigers. These animals are indigenous to parts of the world that are notably warm and humid, not at all like Buffalo, especially in the winter. In the same sense Rochester does not get cold enough to be home to polar bears.
Animals don’t stand a chance of avoiding extinction if we can’t provide them with an atmosphere identical to their home in the wild. No scientist would study a polar bear in Rochester and expect ones located in the wild to act the same way. So, how can we claim zoos educate when they are not an accurate representation of how animals naturally live? With 3,200 of the world’s 5,000 tigers in captivity, I worry there will come a day when we will have to read about how they used to hunt, play, mate, or simply live in the wild because there are none alive to study.
Zoos also tend to breed inbred species, sometimes causing serious physical deformities. And this breeding also created the white tiger. Originally a genetic abnormality, zoos have monopolized on their rare nature. This, however, prevents them from ever being released into the wild as they would not be able to hunt without being noticed by their prey.
Circuses are just as bad, if not worse. Traveling shows and circuses alike do not own their animals, instead they lease them from dealers. The thing that people often forget about animals in circuses and zoos is that they are wild animals, and are not born to think of human safety before their own safety and life. The documentary Tyke the Elephant Outlaw tells the story of a circus elephant named Tyke who, in 1994, became aggressive during a performance and killed one of his trainers.
Tyke was then shot 87 times before dieing in the streets; 87 bullets were aimed at him simply for following his natural instinct to protect himself. Despite common beliefs, animals do not perform out of love, rather they are forced to perform against their will. They are trained using bullhooks, beatings, food deprivation, and other cruel practices and when they try to protect themselves, they are killed. How is that educational? Why would you want to teach a child to kill a creature that is trying to escape torture? If a dog bit someone that gave it daily beatings, would you kill the dog for biting?
If you want to make a difference, stop giving your money to these organizations. It is as simple as that. Seaworld, based on protests and demands of their guests, recently decided to halt their orca shows and instead launch a program based on the environment of the whales. While the whales should not be in confinement at all, this will hopefully lead to the release of these creatures back into their natural habits. If you really love animals and have your heart set on helping them, sign petitions for their release or donate to sanctuaries dedicated to humane treatment, care, and release of animals. Whatever you do though, do not sit by and let such a vital part of our planet be abused by our need for entertainment.