Animal Circuses - Animal Suffering
This giraffe was imported
from
Germany
Transport & Life on the Road
Touring circuses may cover hundreds of miles a year, carrying animals from site to site in transporters and cages on the backs of lorries. Moving location each week means they spend most of the year in temporary accommodation.
The animals may be confined for hours in their travelling cages, with their only respite being either limited time in an exercise cage, being rehearsed, or performing. It is impossible for a travelling menagerie to provide animals with the facilities they need.
Yet circuses in Ireland include such diverse animals as tigers, giraffes, rhinos, hippos, dogs, alligators, snakes, camels, llamas, horses and elephants.
In the wild, elephants are extremely social, living in large groups or herds and travel on average 25kms per day. In the circus, they spend most of each day chained by a front and a hind leg, standing on a wooden or metal board in a tent. The chains on their legs mean they can only shuffle a pace or two backwards or forwards. If they are lucky, they will occasionally have access to a grassed electric fenced enclosure, but this will depend on the circus site. Thus, elephants in circuses spend almost their entire day barely able to move, let alone being able to perform natural behaviours such as foraging, bathing, walking and socialising. This may create stress and frustration and lead to abnormal behaviours such as rocking, swaying and nodding.
Big cats such as tigers, live in beast wagons. Studies have shown that these animals spend most of the day in these small mobile cages. Some may be provided with 'exercise' cages, but often these are only slightly larger than the beast wagon itself, and they are only likely to have access at certain times of day.
These are predators, designed to hunt. But their natural instincts and behaviours are frustrated by the circus. Consequently, lions and tigers may repeatedly pace backwards and forwards in their beastwagon.
It is not just the wild animals that are frustrated and severely confined.
Horses and ponies are extremely social. After being unloaded from their horse boxes or transporters they are often confined in tents, separated from their companions by stalls, which do not allow socialising or mutual grooming. Often horses will be tethered or kept in tiny pens for the entire time they are not performing or rehearsing. If exercise enclosures are provided, these are generally very small - it is unlikely a horse would gallop or really exercise in one. Behavioural abnormalities have been observed in circus horses.
Although performing dogs could be kept as pets, living with a presenter, they are often kept in cages on tour when they are not performing.