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Teaching Children
| CIRCUSES |
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Most people have seen a circus at some time in their life and very often
those circuses have acts which involve animals. They can be elephants
balancing on an object like a big ball, lions and tigers jumping through hoops
or dressed-up monkeys riding on a horse’s back.
While it
may be fun for YOU to dress up and play games
it is
very different for animals.
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Animals
in circuses are either kept in small cages nearly all of their lives and
are only let out for training and performances. If they are too big to
keep in a cage (like elephants) they are tethered. That is, they
have a chain shackled around one or more legs to keep them from walking
too far. This is like keeping them in a prison. In the wild they may be
used to roaming long distances every day but they cannot do this in a
circus. |
| Circus
animals also have to travel very long distances between towns for
performances. |
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Because
they are so restricted they can become very frustrated and start to rock
back and fro. This is called stereotypic behaviour and is similar to going
mad. |
| Circuses
sometimes use the excuse that they use animals to educate and amuse
children, but watching them perform unnatural acts is not teaching us
about them at all.
Do you
really want animals to suffer just to amuse
you?
There are
lots of circuses around that do not have animal acts and they are just as
exciting! |
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