BULLETIN N°15 - October 2002
Relais des associations
12, rue Delille
06000 NICE
So that here and now cruelty to animals
is no longer tolerated
Tél et Fax. 04.93.85.59.50
Sur Internet.
www.stop-abus-animal.com
*
Circus Facts
*
When most people hear the word circus, they think of popcorn, candy, "wild" animals and fun. However, behind the glitter and the glitz of the circus lies a cruel world of animal suffering. The animals are unwilling participants in a show that jeopardizes their health, their mental well-being and their lives.
*
Travel can be torture
*
Some of the larger circuses travel approximately 48 weeks out of the year and cover thousands of miles. Circus schedules are created to maximize attendees, not to ease the suffering of the animals. Some circuses go to warmer states in the summer because residents are accustomed to the heat, even though the animals may be forced to suffer in extreme temperatures. The same unfortunate situation occurs in the winter in colder areas.
*
The animals either travel in 18-wheelers or by trains. In 18-wheelers, the tigers are kept in cages with barely enough room to turn around: there they are forced to eat, sleep and defecate. Often the animals are not let off the railroad cars immediately, either because of traffic conditions or because the train arrived too early or late. Then the animals are forced to wait inside the railroad cars for hours even in the extreme temperatures.
*
Trained by pain
*
Circuses force animals to perform acts that have nothing to do with how these magnificent creatures behave in the wild. These unnatural acts range from a tiger jumping through a flaming hoop to bears riding bicycles. Animals are sometimes injured while performing; tigers have been burned jumping through a flaming hoop. Training animals to perform unnatural acrs requires whips, tight collars, muzzles, electric rpods and other tools. Anytime you see elephants, you will notice that circus employees nearby always hold an ankus (a wooden stick with a sharp, pointed hook at the end) to discourage undesired behavior. The ankus is embedded into the most sensitive areas of an elephant, such as around the feet, behind the ears, under the chin, inside the mouth and other locations around the face, and is sometimes used to smash animals across the face.
*
Lives of constant confinement and frustration of natural instincts force animals into a state of neurosis. Elephants constantly sway back and forth in their chains and the tigers constantly pace in their cages. These repetitive behaviors are symptoms of deep psychological distress. Elephants in the wild walk many miles a day and travel in groups. In the circus, these animals are chained by two legs, unable to take one step forward, except when performing. It is well known that elephants have a close family unit. However, in the circus these families are usually torn apart.
*
Animals in circuses do not provide a realistic educational tool for children because the animals are forced to perform tricks that are not normal to them. Children are seeing broken-spirited animals reacting to a stressful and unnatural environment.
*
Public Safety: Reason for Concern
*
Animals in circuses are threats to public safety; wild animals on city streets give communities reason to be concerned. When animals are brought in by trains, the animals are sometimes walked to an arena where they will be performing. Cars and elephants are side-by-side on busy city streets. Again, the animals are forced to endure extreme temperatures. Although some animals are accustomed to the heat, they are not used to walking on hot pavement or to not having access to water, trees or mud holes. Circus trainers will even withhold food and water from animals to reduce untimely excrement.
*
Elephants in circuses have gone on rampages and caused destruction, injuring and killing spectators. Since 1990, 18 people have been killed and 86 injured. In 1994 an elephant named Tyke killed her "trainer", then went on a rampage in the streets of Honolulu, injuring onlookers and damaging property. Tyke was eveutally gunned down in front of the public by police. Other incidents have occurred when elephants are frightened, sometimes by the honking of car horns. tigers have also been known to attack and kill their "trainers"; others have escaped into terrified communities.
*
Some elephants in circuses have been found to have a human strain of tuberculosis (TB). These animals pose a serious health risk since they are in contact with the public during publicity events and when children receive elephant rides.
*
Unseen victims
*
Some circuses, in addition to having animal performers, will also have other animals in a makeshift zoo. These animals, such as rhinoceroses and giraffes, are kept in small cages and are not let out. They are unable to hide as the public reaches into their cages.
*
Fun Circuses
*
There are circuses that are fun, and exciting, with no animal abuse. Cirque du Soleil, the New Pickle Family circus, Circus Smirkus, Cirque Eloize, Circus Oz and the Mexican National Circus are all wonderful circuses that offer family entertainment full of exwcitement and suspense, with no animal suffering.
*
This document prepared by In Defense of Animals, 131 Camino Alto, Mill Valley, CA 94941 www.idausa.org
*
The Truth about "Humane" Meat, Milk and Eggs
*
While it may be that "free-range" farm animals experience less suffering that their factory raised counterparts, the fact is, meat consumption necessitates killing, and there is no such thing as "humane slaughter". Whenever people eat meat, they support unnecessary cruelty and death.
*
Aside from the obvious conflict between compassion and slaughter, animals killed for meat are also subjected to transportation and handling stress on the way to slaughter and at the slaughterhouse itself. therefore, even if animals are raised under the most "humane' conditions imaginable, handling, transporting and slaughtering involves cruelty.
*
Eggs and Dairy
*
There is an incorrect tendency to look upon dairy and eggs as less cruel than meat because milk and eggs do not cause the immediate deaths of the cows and chickens producing them. The truth is, dairy and eggs are more cruel than meat. Egg-laying hens and dairy cows are subjected to stressful and inhumane conditions for years before being slaughtered for their flesh.
*
Free-Range Eggs
*
Although "free-range" hens may be given more space than hens in battery cages, there is no uniform standard defining how "free-range" hens must be kept. The hens may simply be given bigger cages than their sisters in battery cages. In addition, it is common for free-range layers to be debeaked just like battery cage layers.
*
But even if free-range hens were given all the space they could use and an environment in which they could fulfill normal social and behavioral needs, they are still killed for meat when their egg production rates drop off, usually after one or two years. And like other "free-range" animals, they are subjected to abuse during transportation, handling and slaughter.
*
Another problem inherent with ALL egg production involves the disposal of unwanted male chicks at the hatchery. Because the males don't lay eggs, and because egg type strains of chickens don't grow fast enough to be raised profitably for meat, the baby male chicks are discarded shortly after hatching. Considered a liability, they are killed by the cheapest and easiest means available. these include suffocation or being ground up alive.
*
Humane Milk
*
Cows' milk is meant for baby calves, not humans, and whenever cows' milk is taken by humans, baby calves are being denied what is rightfully theirs. Milk production, whether on a small dairy farm or on a large factory farm, causes unnecessary animal suffering and death.
*
For a cow to produce milk, she has to have a calf, and today, most dairy cows have a calf every year. The female calves are used to replace worn out and less productive cows in the milking herd. Dairy cows living on less intensive dairies may suffer less than cows in factory production, but ultimately they all end up at the slaugherhouse when their milk production drops off.
*
Unlike female calves born to dairy cows, male calves cannot produce milk, and so they are used solely for meat. Some are killed at a few days old for 'bob' veal while most are raised and slaughtered as beef. Others are confined in small wooden crates, chained by the neck, and fed an all liquid milk substitute which is deficient in iron and fiber in order to produce "formula-fed" or "white" veal. The formula-fed veal industry was created as a direct result of the dairy industry, to take advantage of the millions of male calves born to dairy cows every year.
*
Document produced by Farm Sanctuary
*
Farm Sanctuary is a national nonprofit organization working to end the exploitation of animals raised for food. We are :
investigating and prosecuting farm animal abusers with precedent-setting legal action
passing landmark laws to outlaw cruel agribusiness practices
exposing the meat, egg and dairy industries through national news and public awareness campaigns
operating the largest public shelters in the US for victims of "food animal" production
*
Individuals donating $15 or more become Farm Sanctuary members and receive our quarterly newsletter which features research and investigative reports, campaign updates and action alerts, and shelter news and event information. All contributions are fully tax-deductible and greatly appreciated.
*
http://www.farmsanctuary.org
*
   
Ladies! Gentlemen!
Let Us Wake Up ! We Have Been Sleeping Too Long !
"Never believe that a few caring people can't change
the world.
For indeed, that's all who ever have."
Margaret Mead
 
  *