I didn't see my first circus until I was 14. It was the big deal, but without the big top, the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, set up at the Denver Coliseum, which was rather new in those days.
The wild animals didn't have much impact on me. I remember, my adolescent hormones ascendant, being more taken by the skimpiness of the clothing worn by the smiling women who rode the elephants than on the big beasts themselves. The lion "tamer" act held my attention, but I was more interested in the bravery of trapeze acrobats and how so many clowns could fit into such a tiny vehicle than what the lions might be doing between performances.
As it turned out, they and their animal compatriots had a stressful, unnatural life in captivity, lived in cramped quarters, often chained, frequently punished for being themselves. They typically died young. Ringling Bros. says it's not like that anymore. Their animals, spokespeople say, are well fed, well exercised and treated with kindness. Maybe. Maybe not. But plenty of other circuses around the world haven't abandoned the most vile cruelties of the animals they use to entertain and make money off of.
I have to concede that my epiphany in this matter came rather late in life. It was during a cock fight in Bali, less than a decade ago. Roosters with steel razors tied to their legs battled in the dirt of a steamy palm-roofed arena while men all around me bet tens of thousands of rupiah on the cock they hoped to be the winner. Each loser, an animal well cared for, well-exercised and loved so much that his owner had spent months training him and feeding him water directly from his own mouth, went directly to the cooking pot.
It was that experience that brought me to believe that keeping wild animals caged and making them perform tricks is something we top-of-the-heap animals ought to give up the same way we need to give up the internal combustion engine. It doesn't matter that, unlike those roosters, the owners don't make the elephants or lions and tigers fight each other. The animals are still captive. Circuses without animals are plenty exciting, as Cirque de Soleil and other operations have proved.
Thus, I'm delighted to hear what Bolivia has done.
Bolivia has enacted what animal rights activists are calling the world's first ban on all animals in circuses.
A handful of other countries have banned the use of wild animals in circuses, but the Bolivian ban includes domestic animals as well.
The law, which states that the use of animals in circuses "constitutes an act of cruelty", took effect on 1 July with operators given a year to comply, according to the bill's sponsor, Ximena Flores.
The law was proposed after an undercover investigation by the nonprofit-making London-based group Animal Defenders International (ADI) found widespread abuse in circuses operating in Bolivia. ...
The ADI chief executive, Jan Creamer, called the law "groundbreaking".
Hurrah!
Don't get me wrong. I recognize there's a huge chasm between what Rome did in its Colosseum, sometimes killing scores of animals each day, and what happens at even the worst circuses today.
Moreover, I'm not a believer in suffrage for chimpanzees or panthers, although they perhaps ought to have their own bill of rights. I also think there are times - in cases where no other method will suffice - when animal experimentation is acceptable to save human lives even if it costs the animals theirs. But such experiments should not be done gratuitously, or just to see what will happen, or for no other purpose than to make a profit. There ought also to be some acknowledgment for each death, some ritual act of forgiveness if you will, in line with that performed by some American Indians and other societies in the past when they killed animals to feed themselves.
I understand the moral sponginess of my stance. I'm a vegetarian, and although I think factory-raising of animals is an abomination, I'm not calling for an end to the eating of meat. Perhaps that makes me a hypocrite. Judge for yourself.
Nevertheless, when it comes to circuses and, yes, most zoos as well, I think it's time we move on. Bolivia's new law and efforts like that of the Captive Animals' Protection Society and Mercy for Animals deserve to be listened to rather than ridiculed. Keeping wild animals shackled is something we ought ditch, adding it to other relics we've given up.