Good Morning Kossacks and Welcome to Morning Open Thread (MOT)
We're known as the MOTley Crew and you can find us here every morning at 6:30 Eastern. Feel free to volunteer to take a day - permanently or every now and again. With the auto-publish feature you can set it and forget it. Sometimes the diarist du jour shows up much later, that's the beauty of Open Thread...it carries on without you! Just let us know in the comments.
Every January the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus schedules shows all across the state of Florida. Their schedule takes them across most of the U.S., but most of their shows are in the southeast.
John Ringling moved his traveling circus to Sarasota, Florida in 1927 where he purchased land and opened his Ringling Museum of Art to house his extensive art collection.
Ringling died a poor man in 1936 and his will bequeathed his mansion and art museum to the state of Florida. The "Greatest Show on Earth" was sold to the Feld family in 1967, but it still carries the Ringling name. The name that now has become tarnished with charges of animal abuse in the decades since Feld Entertainment became the parent company. Many former Ringling workers have themselves become whistleblowers.
We know that the bears, tigers, elephants and other animals we see at the circus had to be trained to perform their tricks of balancing on balls, bowing for the audience, standing on their heads and jumping through rings of fire; they don't do these things because they want to either - they do them because they are afraid of what will happen to them if they do not.
PETA image showing trainer using the bullhook on a baby elephant. The bullhook has a sharp steel hook and point on one end and resembles a boot hook or fireplace poker.
The preferred method for training circus animals does not employ an ounce of "positive reinforcement", instead they depend entirely on punishment, deprivation and pain. Trainers routinely use whips, tight collars, muzzles, electric prods, bullhooks and in at least one case a blowtorch.
PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) released a report that outlines the despicable conditions to which these animals are subjected.
Constant travel means that animals are confined to boxcars, trailers, or trucks for days at a time in extremely hot and cold weather, often without access to basic necessities such as food, water, and veterinary care. Elephants, big cats, bears, and primates are confined to cramped and filthy cages in which they eat, drink, sleep, defecate, and urinate—all in the same place.
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus boasts that its three units travel more than 25,000 miles as the circus tours the country for 11 months each year. Ringling's own documents reveal that on average, elephants are chained for more than 26 hours straight and are sometimes continually chained for as many as 60 to 100 hours. Tigers and lions usually live and travel in cages that provide barely enough room for the animals to turn around, often with two big cats crammed into a single cage. In July 2004, Clyde, a young lion traveling with Ringling, died in a poorly ventilated boxcar while the circus was crossing the Mojave Desert, where temperatures reached at least 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Clyde likely died a miserable death from heatstroke and dehydration. Previously, two tigers with Ringling injured themselves while attempting to escape from their cages in an overheated boxcar.
Mother Jones in 2011 published the results of a yearlong investigation dealing with routine abuse of elephants. The article begins with the story of Kenny, a 3 year old Asian elephant who was clearly very ill and very weak, but was made to perform his act. Attendants reported his condition
twice to the circus veterinarian, but nothing came of that until after two more performances and it was noticed that Kenny was bleeding from his rectum. The vet prescribed antibiotics and recommended that Kenny skip the evening show, but the vice president of animal care overruled the vet's advice and Kenny was once again forced into another performance. Two hours later Kenny's lifeless body lay in a pool of blood on the concrete floor.
Feld Entertainment did not release an announcement of the elephant's death and it would have gone unnoticed had an employee not contacted an animal rights group and reported the abuse. A subsequent investigation by the Department of Agriculture brought about two charges of willful violations against Feld Entertainment.
This one story is by no means the worst. In fact, it is not even close to being the worst. The stories and videos in this report alone will make you vow to never again support a circus that uses these methods on the animals.
Feld Entertainment paid a $270,000 settlement in November of 2011 - the largest ever paid by an animal exhibitor under the Animal Welfare Act. They had repeatedly violated federal laws in their handling of elephants, tigers, zebras and other exotic animals. Feld Entertainment would not admit their culpability even in the face of overwhelming evidence, they instead chose to agree to a settlement as the cost of doing business and to resolve their differences with the USDA.
Some quick facts about circus animals:
- Circus animals have the right to be protected and treated humanely under the Animal Welfare Act
- From 1994 to 2005, 31 circus elephants died from inhumane conditions
- Tigers naturally fear fire but they are still forced to jump through fire hoops in some circuses
- If humans come into contact with an elephant with tuberculosis, they are at risk of catching the disease
- Since 1990, there have been 12 deaths that relate to circus elephants. There are over 126 injuries worldwide
- Less than 100 U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspectors are assigned to monitor the 12,000 circus-related facilities in America
- In 1994, a circus elephant escaped in Honolulu and killed over a dozen people before being shot with 87 bullets
- Since 1990, there have been over 123 cases of lion attacks
- Circus animals spend an average of 26 hours in cages, during transport
- In the wild, elephants walk about 25 miles a day. In a circus, they spend the 96% of their lives in cages
- On average, circuses travel about 48 weeks per year
PETA's list of animal free circuses (pdf format)
Listing of specific circuses, including U.S. Department of Agriculture citations and dangerous incidents
PETA's Pledge to Stop Circus Cruelty -- Please sign and share
ASPCA's listing of animal free circuses
If you are in Florida this year you can take in one of these animal free circuses:
The FSU Flying High Circus
Sailor Circus
La Nouba Cirque de Soleil
Performing in Florida and other states:
Circus of the Kids