Cav's Place

This post is quite connected to the last one and could have been called “Circus Animals and Slavery”, but it was, in fact, inspired by Bolivia banning the use of animals for circus acts. But while the similarities are obvious, both being utterly exploited by humans, the difference between farm animals and circus animals is that I really don’t see how anyone could even think about challenging the notion that circus animals are performing jobs no different from those performed by police dogs, for example, as they require training, skills and specific actions under specific conditions.
Under these circumstances, is it right to ban the concept of circus animals entirely? Isn’t that something like banning police animals or even banning employers from hiring people? Sure, an important difference is that it can easily be argued that most police animals and some farm animals, not to mention a part of the human employees, are necessary, while circus animals are not, as they are certainly not required in order to provide entertainment in general, so the ban can be considered to be the easy solution to the problem. But that problem is obviously how they are treated, not the simple fact that they are used.

Do the vast majority of circuses abuse their animals? Absolutely. But do all circuses abuse all of their animals? I’m not so sure. And, either way, since the way those animals are treated is the problem, that’s what the law should regulate. It would in effect be a ban on a lot of practices and acts that couldn’t really be performed if the animals would be treated well, but perhaps not on everything. In addition, such a measure could also serve as a means to inform circus owners and animal handlers of the proper way to treat animals, as some of them, those who are more lenient in their training practices but still offer their animals a poor diet and poor living conditions, may really be unaware of the harm they’re causing.
Such a direct ban on the activity itself, however, may do more harm than good not only to the existing circus animals, but also to those currently caught in the trade, legal and illegal alike, as circuses are likely to be important buyers. When all these circus owners are told to simply get rid of their animals, they may well do just that, by abandoning or killing them. And when the traders will know that circus owners will no longer be buying from them, they may follow suit with their current stock. And things may not be much better for the animals handed over to shelters either, as these are usually not the kind of tenants that animal shelters are used to having, which means that the staff may well be unfit to care for them and the living conditions may not be noticeably more suitable for them than the ones they had at the circus. Not to mention the terrible overcrowding and the strain on the meager resources that such shelters usually have to make do with that will result from any significant number of circus owners and traders actually doing the right thing…

But let me be more specific about the solution I’m proposing. Firstly, all circuses should be required to submit their animals to periodic examinations by qualified professionals in order to determine their condition. Secondly, no new animals should be taken from the wild in order to be used in circus acts, though this should not affect the animals that have already been legally taken from the wild and are yet to be handed over or sold to circuses. And, of course, there should be very harsh punishments for those who break these rules or who, as proven by the periodic examinations, mistreat their animals.
Going into further detail, the periodic examinations should very easily reveal any signs of physical abuse or very poor living conditions, which should result in the immediate confiscation of the animals in question and the punishment of the guilty circus owners and handlers. If no obvious signs of abuse can be found and yet the animals suffer from serious health problems, a team should be sent to inspect the circus. If the conditions prove to be poor, those responsible will be appropriately punished. Otherwise, the animals will be held until they could be nursed back to health and then returned, if possible. Lastly, if the animals would suffer from less serious ailments, the owners should be advised on how to treat them and put on probation. If the animals would be in better shape at the time of the next examination, the probation period will end. If not, it will be assumed that the owners mistreat the animals and they will be appropriately punished.
As for the second rule, we must make sure that animals will no longer be plucked from the wild just to provide entertainment for people. This should also make circus owners treat their animals somewhat more responsibly, as it’ll be harder to replace them. However, as I said, traders should be able to keep and sell any animals already legally taken from the wild at the time the law would come into effect, as otherwise they’d be likely to abandon or kill them. Efforts should be made to obtain, even by purchasing, those animals that could still be returned to the wild in order to do just that, but owners and traders shouldn’t be pressured in ways which could result in an even worse fate for the animals in question than the one they had up to that point.

I believe that such regulations could work towards improving the living conditions of circus animals, which are the real problem, while significantly reducing the problems potentially generated by an actual ban. Most circuses would eventually be forced to give up on animal acts because they’d lack the resources, skills or even the willingness to treat their non-human performers properly, but the practice itself could continue rather well where those animals would be treated as valued employees and offered genuine care and good living conditions. Since we’re mainly talking about animals that’d hardly make good pets but would be equally unsuited for life in the wild, being born and raised in captivity, this may well be the best realistic solution for them.
But, going back to the situation in Bolivia, I certainly hope those senators’ fears will soon turn into reality and bullfighting will be banned as well, as there’s absolutely no way to justify torturing and killing an animal like that!