Health and Safety
The health and safety of the visiting public and of circus staff is of serious concern to CAPS and this investigation has highlighted many issues that we encourage the relevant authorities to take action on.
Circuses pose a particular problem with safety due to the hands-on nature of training the animals and performing with them in the ring and the fact that the public are very close to the animals both in the ring and in the circus ‘zoo’ before or after a performance.
Not surprisingly, given their sheer size, elephants are a species that pose a particular risk to humans in a circus. Since 1990, over 70 people have been killed and 140 others injured by elephants in circuses, zoos and other captive environments around the world.
Photo prop
At the Royal Russian Circus and Circus Sydney, people could pay to have their photo taken sitting on, or standing next to, an elephant. Those sitting on the crook of the elephant’s front leg were, in the words of vet Samantha Lindley: “within easy reach of her trunk, which swept around from time to time and she could easily have risen with a child on her back. For the most part her handler was at some distance taking photographs.”
Chained
During two visits to Circus Sydney the elephants were chained inside a tent next to the box office. CAPS photographed children touching and feeding the elephants - there was no circus staff supervising the elephants and no barrier to prevent public access or signs warning people to keep away.
Electric
At the Royal Russian Circus and Circus Vegas the elephants were loose in a field, with a few strands of electric wire to contain them.
Royal Russian Circus: “The elephants have clearly been trained to the visual signal of an electric fence. However, when we visited the current appeared not to be switched on. The few strands of wire surrounding the elephant enclosure will fool the animals for a while, but they will only need to brush it once or twice and not get a shock to learn that the current is only there sometimes. They could then walk through this barrier without even noticing. Children spent fifteen minutes crowding around the fence, feeding the elephants, leaning across and through the fence and at one point Maya had her trunk over the fence amongst three toddlers.”
Circus Vegas: Samantha Lindley: “It was not clear as to whether the electric fences were live, but if they were, there were no warning signs to protect the public from an electric shock. Whilst animals will mostly respect electric fencing, they can still walk or run through it when aroused. If they were not electrified, then there was nothing protecting the public but a fragile conditioning of the animals to the sight of white tape.”2005 - Worker injured by elephant
In June 2005, Paul Dineen, a 35-year-old worker at Circus New York was gored and seriously injured by an elephant named Mausie when he entered the tent housing the three elephants at the show. He spent time in intensive care in hospital but the extent of his injuries were not made public.
A spokesperson for the circus said Dineen should not have been in the elephant tent and that he had ‘provoked’ the animals to perform.
Circus New York closed down in 2005. Its co-owner set up Circus Ozzz in 2006, now called Circus Sydney.
While the other two elephants, Maya and Baby, are performing at the Royal Russian Circus in 2006, the whereabouts of Mausie are unknown.
The horse act at Circus Sydney was, according to the vet, 'an appalling accident waiting to happen'.
'The overwhelming noise, flashing lights and competing smells will have been alarming' to the rhino
Children were allowed to feed the giraffe without supervision
This boy received a 'helping hand' from the giraffe presenter
Horses
The horse act at Circus Sydney posed a risk to public safety as the performer was clearly unable to retain control over the horses.
Samantha Lindley: “This is an appalling accident waiting to happen and those in the ringside seats were particularly vulnerable had a horse gone crashing into the ringside barrier. There was obvious aggression, tension and fear amongst all the horses... At the end of the performance two of the greys broke free and ran around the back of the front row and had to be retrieved ... This was a dangerous display which caused distress and fear to the animals, as well as putting the audience in danger.”
Hippo and rhino (Circus Vegas)
Samantha Lindley: “Hippos are notoriously dangerous ... The ‘barrier’ used to herd the hippo into the ring and presumably stop it escaping, consisted of a wooden gate of approximately 1.5 metres by 1.5 metres and a podium tipped up against various other bits of circus flotsam. Either side was policed by a couple of staff. None of these measures would stop a hippo walking, let alone charging in the wrong direction.”
“Similar comments apply to the rhino, but one should also bear in mind that rhinos have extremely sensitive olfactory (smell) sense and poor eyesight. The overwhelming noise, flashing lights and competing smells will have been alarming to this animal.”
Giraffe
At the Royal Russian Circus, children and other visitors were feeding and touching the giraffe through the bars of her pen, without supervision and without being encouraged to wash their hands.
In the ring, the presenter held a young boy’s head to stop him moving while the giraffe ate bread from the boy’s mouth.
2005 - Children bitten by monkey
In July 2005, a five-year-old girl was injured by a monkey at Circus New York. The macaque was brought into the ring for people to have their photo taken next to him. The girl’s mother claimed the monkey jumped on her daughter’s back, scratching and biting her before a circus worker beat the monkey off with a stick.
The circus said the girl had entered an area off-limits to the public, although the girl’s mother denies this.
Later, three more people came forward claiming the monkey had also attacked them, on different occasions in 2005.
When approached by CAPS, both the local council and the Health and Safety Authority claimed it was not their responsibility to investigate the injuries. The monkey disappeared and was discovered in May 2006 locked in a van (belonging to a different small travelling show) which had been unattended for a week.
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