Help Ban Wild Animals in Circuses

Roll up roll up - the circus is in town.  Doesn't everyone love them?  The big top with its slapstick clowns, daredevil acrobats and ...... oh and performing wild animals.  In 17 countries around the world, wild animals are not allowed in circuses but in France, the UK, the US and countless other countries this is not the case.  Throughout the summer, across France you will see posters proudly advertising whichever circus is in town and without a modicum of compassion also displaying the wild animals that will supposedly amaze and delight you.

STOP.  This is 2017 and I thought we had left such atrocities against Nature well and truly in the past.  But no, this is not the case and this was once again brought to my attention when Phoebe, a friend down in Provence, sent me pictures of this circus hippo that she snapped in her local town. Look carefully too and you will see lions caged in small travelling wagons acting as part of the hippo enclosure.

Photo by Phoebe from Lou Messugo

Now as regular readers of this blog know, I love hippos but there is no way I would ever want to see a hippo like this.  How it can be possibly be considered right that an adult hippo should find itself in an circus in Provence, performing night after night to the crowds?   Quite simply it is wrong on so many levels - in fact it is more than wrong, it is barbaric.

To subdue a wild animal to such a degree that it will perform on demand can only be achieved by completely breaking its spirit and this can only be brought about through repeatedly cruel practices designed to terrify the animal into submission.  Take a look at this page from The Dodo if you want to learn more - Baby circus elephant training.  I am sure The Dodo will not mind me sharing a picture from their website if it helps spread the word as to how vile this practice is.  I think it is safe to say that the hippo above went through something similar.

Image from The Dodo

Look a bit closer at the picture, at the man to the left of the woman and you will see he is holding a bullhook, a sharp double pointed stick that serves one purpose only - to inflict pain on the wild animal who eventually learns that the only way to escape the pain is to do whatever his human captors demand .... even if this is nothing like what his body is naturally designed to do.

Two other things really worry me about this circus hippo.  Firstly, a hippo is a water creature and I can be 100% sure that this poor creature will never get to wallow in a warm river and do all the things it would do naturally in the wild.  It also seems to be alone, yet hippos naturally live in large groups.  Likewise with the lions who should be roaming the African plains in large family groups, not cooped up for their entire lives, never able to run free as nature intended.  Animals forced to live in unnatural conditions often exhibit behaviour such as pacing or circling, compulsive head swinging, bar biting or self-mutilation in a vain attempt to relieve boredom and find a replacement for the natural conditions they so desire.  

Secondly, look how close the children are to the hippo as they gawk at these poor animals.  Hippos are dangerous animals and in Africa kill around 3000 people every year and injure many, many more.  Phoebe said that the hippo enclosure was extremely flimsy and not even attached to the ground.  What is to stop that hippo launching itself at the fence and severely injuring or even killing the people nearby? 

Photo by Phoebe from Lou Messugo

So whilst the audience at a circus may never have wielded a bullhook or tied up a young animal forcing it into submission, each and every one of them is the reason these animals continue to suffer on a daily basis - with no audience there would be no need for wild circus animals.

But there is something you can do about this.  If you are in France please contact your local Mairie as it is there that the decision is made whether to allow the circus to pitch up or not.  PETA France has drafted a letter you can send to your mayor demanding that they do not allow the circus in your commune.  You can find it here.  Please send it NOW.   For readers in the UK, PETA UK has drafted a similar letter to send to the Government.  I do however suggest that you delay sending this until after the election on June 8th.

And when you want to go to the circus remember that there are plenty of viable alternatives where no animals are forced to perform in the name of entertainment.  If you truly want to be entertained at the circus then book tickets to the fantastic Cirque du Soleil.  You will not be disappointed.  But I implore you.  Never on any account book tickets to a circus that uses wild animals.  Never.