Circus Sydney
General
Run by Alexander Scholl
Started in 2006. Was originally called Circus Ozzz and billed as ‘Australian Super Circus’ but changed its name to Circus Sydney a few months later, because of legal threats by Circus Oz in Australia
Animals
Animals used in 2010: Horses, dogs, kangaroos, wallabies, llamas, goats, emu
Animals used in 2009: Horses, dogs, kangaroos, wallabies, llamas, goats, emu
Animals used in 2008: Elephants, kangaroos, emus, ostriches, horses, dogs, ponies
Animals used in 2007: 1 elephant, kangaroos, horses, dogs
Animals used in 2006: 2 African elephants, 4 kangaroos, 1 ostrich, 6 horses, 5 dogs, 1 pony
Controversy
The following are some of the issues relating to this circus:
October 2010: Wallaby escapes from Circus Sydney. Click here for more details.
October 2010: Irish Mail on Sunday call circus boss Alexander Scholl a liar after it published photos proving he did take a wallaby to a nightclub . Click here for more details.
October 2010: Circus boss Alexander Scholl is questioned by gardai over the death of a wallaby at a hotel disco. It was alleged the animal was given alcohol and drugs. Click here for more details.
September 2010: Martin Scholl, brother of circus boss Alexander, was convicted of drugging two dogs and smuggling them into Britain on his way to perform with Circus Sydney in Ireland. Click here for more details.
June 2010: More than 50 people and 40 animals with Circus Sydney were unable to access water for more than 24 hours at a site in Newry. Click here for more details.
October 2009: Circus Sydney is ordered to pay €5,500 to South Dublin Council for the return of six llamas and four goats that escaped from the circus and caused major traffic chaos on the M50. Click here for more details.
November 2008:
The Advertising Standards Authority Ireland (ASAI) upheld four complaints made by Freedom for Animals about advertising by the circus, including false claims about the number of elephants at the show and that the circus is from Australia. Click here for more details.
October 2008:
Circus Sydney walks its two elephants down a main road in Bangor, County Down until he was told to stop by police. Click here for more details.
July 2007:
Circus Sydney’s elephant Kenya died under mysterious circumstances while the circus was in County Antrim. The body of the 19-year-old African elephant was incinerated before any examination could be done. The circus claimed Kenya had suffered a heart attack after “she was hassled by dogs”.
(Irish Sunday Mirror, 5 August 2007)
March 2007:
The co-owner of Circus Sydney was been prosecuted after her dog attacked a child. A court heard that the dog, a three-foot tall cross between a Rottweiler and a German Shepherd, described as aggressive by a dog warden, chased a group of children, injuring a seven year-old-boy. Yvette Scholl was fined €400 with expenses of €185.
(Irish Independent, 9 March 2007 and Sligo Champion, 14 March 2007)
August 2006:
A 76-year-old woman claimed she was attacked by Circus Sydney staff while she was placing anti-circus flyers over posters advertising the circus. She told the press she was set upon by two circus workers who knocked her to the ground, kneed her in the back, held her arm behind her back, verbally threatened her and damaged her bicycle.
(Irish Examiner, 3 August 2006)
July 2006:
A wallaby escaped from the circus while it was in Cork, being recaptured a week later. The circus claimed kids had left a gate to the wallaby pen open after going in to see the animals
July 2006:
A Freedom for Animals representative accused the circus’ elephant handler of assaulting her and causing her a hand injury while she was trying to photograph an elephant who had a leg injury.
(Irish Echo, 28 July 2006)
July 2006:
Freedom for Animals and AFAR called on Circus Sydney to release their elephant Max to a sanctuary following concerns about his welfare. Max has a deformed leg but was made to perform in the ring, including lifting people on his tusks. The circus had agreed to allow an independent vet to carry out an examination of both elephants but the animals were transported to Germany by the circus shortly before the veterinary inspection was due.
Freedom for Animals study
The following comments are taken from Freedom for Animals report ‘An investigation into animal circuses in Ireland in 2006’.
Samantha Lindley is the vet who carried out some of the inspections of circuses with Freedom for Animals investigators.
Elephants:
There are two African elephants at the circus, Max (male) and Kenya (female), owned and presented by the German family Scholl. The acts involved walking with one leg raised, rapidly moving the head from side to side, swinging the trunk, sitting on a podium and lifting both front legs.
Samantha Lindley:
“The elephants present a pathetic sight. The male has a deformed left hind foot, but is still made to perform in the ring [including sitting on a podium and lifting a young boy on his tusks] and obviously to travel long distances frequently. The other elephant is made to hop around the ring on three legs, putting unnecessary strain on the front right leg (bear in mind that this must be done in practice as well as performance). After standing on the podium it has to thrash its trunk around. This is an entirely unnatural behaviour and runs the risk of damaging the trunk musculature and even nerve supply. It is a possible contributing factor to ‘trunk paralysis’ since this is a condition of unknown aetiology. Then it moves its head violently from side to side [as if ‘dancing’], putting unnecessary strain on its neck muscles and cervical spine. These are not normal behaviours for an elephant; they represent potential injury and suffering and should be stopped.”
Visitors could observe the elephants before and after the performance, in a small tent next to the box office.
During two visits (the first and third of three visits) the two elephants were chained to a wooden platform approximately 5 metres by 5 metres, with chains attached to a front and back leg, the standard way of restraining elephants in a circus. Both elephants were displaying typical stereotypic behaviours of weaving and head bobbing.
During our second visit, the circus was packing up to move to the next venue immediately after the show and the elephants were temporarily held behind an electric wire. Kenya, was seen head bobbing and weaving, signs of unnatural behaviour often associated with poor welfare.
Following media coverage obtained by Freedom for Animals and AFAR, in July 2006, about the conditions for the two elephants, the circus agreed to allow the DSPCA to arrange a veterinary examination of the male, Max. This was due to take place on 22nd August 2006 by a vet from University College Dublin. The results, including x-rays of Max’s leg, would have been made public.
The circus did not keep the arranged appointment and both elephants were instead transported back to Germany a few days previously by their German owner, who had been touring with the circus.
Max had been sent to a safari park near Hannover, to be used for breeding purposes. Kenya reappeared with Circus Sydney shortly after, fuelling suspicions that she may not have left Ireland at all or had been transported to Germany and back to avoid the DSPCA inspection.
Freedom for Animals has called on the circus and the safari park to allow both elephants to be moved to a specialised elephant sanctuary where they would be able to live the rest of their lives in more appropriate conditions and not be exploited for entertainment.
Ostrich
Samantha Lindley:
The ostrich’s “‘trick’ is to lie flat on the ground. This is the natural behaviour of the threatened ostrich and would hardly need much reinforcing.”
Ostriches are known for being aggressive around people and can seriously injure or even kill with a powerful kick, and, as the vet noted, “whilst their natural instinct is to run away, in the confined space of the ring this animal cannot do so. Ostriches tend to be nomadic and live in groups of 5 to 50 individuals – again this animal in living in unnatural isolation in this circus.”
Wallabies
On our first two visits to Circus Sydney, there was a two-year-old wallaby who, the vet stated “had to be carried into the ring and was clearly frightened by the noise and keeps trying to leave, but is restrained by a harness. Kangaroos of any species are prey animals and are not normally solitary. There is no excuse for carting this frightened animal around the country and exposing it to the sights and sounds and deprivations of a circus existence.”
Children were actively encouraged to reach over the ringside barrier and touch the wallaby.
A third visit to this circus by Freedom for Animals at the end of July 2006 found that there were now four wallabies. As far as we could tell, these animals were not with the show at the time of our first two visits.
Horses
Commenting on the horse performance during our second visit, vet Samantha Lindley noted:
“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. The horses had a coloured and ostensibly decorative sash between the left ear and the right side of the muzzle at the side of the bit. This obscured the view medially from their right eye (very unnerving when turning and in close proximity to other horses). There was obvious aggression, tension and fear amongst all the horses, but most particularly from the middle black and the rear grey. Horses do not like being in such close proximity to each other without choice and are likely to bite, kick, rear or buck. The black bucked and reared repeatedly. 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. During the performance the horses had to be controlled with the whip by the performer and by someone in the background. This was a dangerous display which caused distress and fear to the animals.”
The presenter had lost control of the horses so much during our second visit that she had to abandon an act where one horse would jump over a rope attached to another horse.
The same presenter returned with a single horse act, the equine put through a ‘dancing’ routine to rock music. The vet commented that this act “put even more unnecessary strain on a horse’s musculoskeletal system than occurs with normal riding or even dressage. Look at the performance of the Quarter horse (often used in rodeos and western-style events) to see how this kind of movement causes early break down of horses – and these horses are bred for such movement. Muscle strain, joint injury, ligament and tendon damage are all possible with this kind of performance when repeated on a regular basis.”
Dogs
It is often claimed by circuses that dogs enjoy performing, but some of the acts seen here raised welfare problems. The dogs were a mixture of breeds and each carried out different acts, culminating in three of them riding on the back of a pony.
Samantha Lindley:
“The lurcher had to walk for some distance on its hind legs – this puts unnecessary and unnatural strain on the hind legs and potentially the stifle (knee) joints; it also looked stressed on the back of the horse, having difficulty balancing.
“The spaniel had to crawl in a supplicating manner that put pressure on both front and back legs (a highly unnatural posture and behaviour for dogs). Most worrying was the terrier – it was either in pain or sedated (other explanations for this behaviour could be that the dog was clinically depressed, frightened or very ill, but these are not likely). It had to be carried into the ring and carried to its tricks. As a veterinary surgeon one can recognise an animal that is centrally depressed (by chemical, disease or behaviour) and this animal was depressed. It had been lively enough four nights before [on a previous visit by Freedom for Animals investigators] and had to be restrained from jumping off the horse and jumping down from its tricks. Now it appeared spaced out, vacant and slow. This dog was not fit to be used in this performance and questions should be asked about the use of veterinary or other sedatives.
“The pony that was brought on for the dog-on-pony rides had its neck so tightly arched by an attachment between headcollar and chest strap that it could not raise its head nor look to either side. As well as causing neck strain this is a highly stressful position to put any horse in.”
Health and Safety
During our first visit to the circus, children went in to see and touch the elephants while they were chained in a tent next to the box office after the show. There were no circus staff supervising the elephants and no barrier to prevent public access or signs warning people to keep away. Although the elephants were both chained by a front and back leg, people were still at risk of injury if hit by the elephants’ trunks or the tusks of the male.
After the performance on our second visit the elephants were in the outdoor tent surrounded by electric wire.
Vet Samantha Lindley: “the circus was packing up and the fence was released despite the fact that numerous members of the public were no more than ten feet away. Kenya [the younger and smaller of the two elephants] decided to head off in the opposite direction to the calls of the young man in charge. Eventually she was restrained and guided round to the lorry by the other young keeper, but she was reluctant to get in, although the male was already in. It was highly irresponsible to drop the fence with the public, especially young children, around.”
In October 2006, Circus Sydney took 5-ton elephant Kenya walking in a busy high street in Cork city centre, to promote the circus. A newspaper report shows a young child feeding an apple to Kenya (Irish Examiner, 28 October 2006).
The circus also used two elephants to lead a parade through Sligo in March 2006 (when performing as Circus Ozzz) (Irish Times, 18 March 2006).
The ‘stallion’ act already referred to posed a risk to public safety as the trainer / 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, but most particularly from the middle black and the rear grey. Horses do not like being in such close proximity to each other without choice and are likely to bite, kick, rear or buck. The black bucked and reared repeatedly. 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. During the performance the horses had to be controlled with the whip by the performer and by someone in the background. This was a dangerous display which caused distress and fear to the animals, as well as putting the audience in danger.”
