Hook 'em.

Colorful, Sparkly costumes and constantly bright smiles. Circus.



I believe that almost everyone has been to a circus at least once, it might've been as a child going there with its parents or friends, or going with ones child(ren) as the parent. I remember happy memories from the few trips I've had to the circus - hillarious clowns and animals doing astonishing maneuvres.




I didn't see anything wrong in it when I was a child - because I didn't know how wrong keeping animals like most circuses do is.
Of course, now, I know better. I know that the animals I saw at the centre circle beneath the soaring limelight entertaining us humans probably didn't find it as pleasing themselves. Tiny, inhumane cages, whips, beating, starvation, dangerous tricks and physical terror are some of the things circus animals experience every day. They're treated worse than the "freakshows of the human world" were treated when keeping humans with unusual abilities or flaws locked up was common. We've learned to know that treating humans that way is very wrong, so why is it so hard to understand that keeping animals the same way is wrong, too?

"Sink that hook into ‘em ... when you hear that screaming then you know you got their attention. … " This is an authentic quote from a circus employee caught on tape.



Is this the way a wild elephant would act? Of course not, so why make them? Is it really that entertaining? Did you know that to tame an elephant into obeying their "master" they're exposed to electric shock, baseball bats and whips. Sick. As the quote above states, they also use sharp bull hooks driven into the most vulnerable places on their bodywhich causes the animal a lot of pain - and they're often disguised as gentle, rubber hooks as to fool the audience into believing that they do no harm to the animal.




Most of the year they're either loaded on trucks or chained to a pole or a car. It is very common for circus animals to develop mental distress as they are caged in spaces so small that they can hardly turn around or reposition themselves. This leads to repeated motions over and over with no understandable purpose. It is also common that they have to sleep, eat and defecate in that little cage.



Please, do not visit circuses starring animals. The animals are most likely living under horrible conditions which they do not deserve, and as long as people visit the circus, there will be a market for it, and before there'll be a law forbidding it, they will continue their awful industry.

As I was walking home yesterday with some friends, I noticed all these red posters hanging on every street light and as I walked closer, realized they were advertising a circus. We tore them down. "Sorry."

Song of the day: Circus by Britney Spears.

Have you been to a circus?
What do you think of circuses?