Circus Cruelty - Volunteers Needed!

Once you do the circus handouts, please go to the zoo and do the same there.
Why do animals have to be caged for us to stare at or watch while they perform stupid tricks?

Thanks for doing this dralionagogo. I like in the point and it makes me sick. Wish I could help out that day.

Circus and Zoo are apples and oranges when you consider the care of the animals. But I get your point hockeyfan.

Volunteers will need to be quick on their feet...

Possibly to avoid injury from irate circus employees.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/children-of-all-ages-delighted-by-enslavement-of-t,17534/

I agree and support this movement. I dislike the abuse that often goes hand and hand with animal entertainment.

Kelly Miller is also doing a circus on Friday August 6th in Sylvania, at the corner of Brint & Centennial. (They come to that location every year.)

Does your flyer say what issues you want people to watch for? I will likely be attending the Friday show with my family.

No offense; but why in the world would you support something like that? It's not educational. the only "good" that comes of it is some people make some money and some others got to pay to waste a few hours of their life they will never get back.

Three rings around this circus

Thanks for your activism and continuing to raise public awareness of animal abuse in the circus.

Which is worse? Watching animals do stupid tricks for some amusement or watching them sit in a cage their entire life? With the internet, tv shows, and travel being so inexpensive, let's go back to letting these animals live their lives in the wild. How "saved" is an animal if it lives it's entire life caged up?

mom2: What to look out for are sick or injured animals, overheated animals (panting, excessive thirst), actual physical abuse (whips, bullhooks, electric prods, mishandling}, animals left unattended or w/o shelter/shade.

Also consider the public's safety. Are there enough attendants for the animal? Is there sufficient space and barriers between the animal and the audience?

Occasionally you will have the chance to see the enclosure, in which case it should be clean with no dangerous articles (chipped paint, protruding nails) and should always have fresh food/water and toys.

The list really goes on and on, so if you notice anything questionable, feel free to report it.

Report any signs of cruelty in a polite and detailed letter to the USDA. If you see an animal being struck, make it a point to count how many times it happens and include that in your report.

USDA/APHIS/AC
4700 River Rd. , Unit 84
Riverdale, MD 20737-1234

fax: 301-734-4978 email: ace@aphis.usda.gov

*I'd also like to add that animals who are seen pacing, walking in circles, swaying, biting bars, bobbing their heads, or are isolated are also good reasons to file a report. These are all behaviors created out of boredom and can lead to almost an insanity in the animal, like the dogs you see in puppy mills who spin in circles.

Circus animals spend the majority of their time locked in a small, dirty cage with little to no ventilation or adequate or clean food or water. When they are let out, it's to preform or practice - where they are physically abused or forced under consequence of abuse to preform unnatural and sometimes painful tricks.

And people still go to these things, even after knowing all that.

And they PAY to go – amazing.

Approx 9 years ago the Toledo Zoo locked up a sloth bear for some type of "induced hybernation". The bear died of starvation and dehydration cause it never "hybernated" and sloth bears don't.
But yet Lucas county voters approved a levy to help it financially.
So we all pay, even more amazing. The zoo is just better at hiding what really happens.

Yes, a world renowned zoo and a two bit circus provide the exact same care to their animals and serve the exact same purpose.

Yes, a tragic ACCIDENT at the Toledo Zoo and repeatedly forcing animals to perform in terrible conditions are very similar indeed.

Yes, we get it. You got kicked out of the zoo at one point for hitting on a chimp and have never forgiven them.

Thanks for hijacking a well meaning thread with your usual contrary drivel.

It's all relative, especially considering the recent incident with Louie the elephant. Had he not been beat with a bullhook, I doubt the incident would have ensued. Anyone else wondering what the tape so subtlety did not show? Cover it up, zoo, cover it up.

...And now I'm off topic.

I am still in need of volunteers for Thursdays performances, but now I am also looking for a team to tackle the Friday show in Sylvania as well.

I will not be in attendance for the Friday performance, but would like the same fliers circulating. Please contact me if interested in helping out on either day.

This is really easy work. Volunteers must contact me by tomorrow afternoon for more information.

Can we put the credentials of the zoo's critics up against the credentials of the zoo's trained animal handlers?

It's easy to be a critic.

dralionagogo is my daughter & I am proud of her efforts to try to inform people about the abuse that has always been rampant in circuses. Sadly, circuses transport the animals no better than they did in the 20's. The animals are crowded too tight into overheated, unventilated, trucks or box cars for over 24 hrs at a time or more - city to city, standing in their own excrement - no food or water available. When the animals are unloaded at the each site (all they do is travel site to site) - the animals are either tethered or caged - in too small cages & left to stand in the heat & sun for hours. Elephants are 'tethered' so only one foot can be raised at a time. Only circuses & lesser zoos use bull hooks on elephants - they tear the thinner skin. Many times the teeth & claws of the big cats have been removed. When the animal ceases to serve it's purpose - they 'dispose' of them. If you google Kelly Miller Circus abuse there are many video's of some of their performances in other towns. One of the video's tiger shows the tigers appear to be drugged - slow motion obeying commands. Drugging & electric shocks are common. ALL circuses are this way - even the bigger ones are horrible (or worse). People go to circuses because I think they are not aware of what goes on 'behind the scenes'. Their eyes are glued to action under the Big Top & pay little attention to how the animals are really responding - or, question how they got them to respond - fear. Circuses (kelly miller has a long list of them) have long lists of citations from the usda & animal welfare protection agencies. They also have long records of criminal history with their employees - a 14 yr old circus attendee was raped, eyewitness of elephant beatings, addicts, felons - they pick hlep up on the road & pay them little.

And with the internet, it's easy to be a well-informed critic.

The zoo's elephant trainer, Don RedFox, learned elephant "handling" under Richard "Army" McGuire, an apprentice of circus trainers. McGuire boasts the use of "Operant Conditioning" to train elephants. This method uses consequence as incentive - plainly, preform or meet the wrath of a bullhook. McGuire insists on this being the best way to train elephants, particularly the otherwise non-tamable African elephant, such as Louie. I won't get into the severity of punishment or conditioning here, but a little research I'm sure would make you a critic too.

Elephants are not meant to live in captivity. They suffer from bone and joint and skin conditions as a result of it and many of those consequence-encouraged tricks are painful on their large bodies with limited flexibility. A captive elephant routinely lives half their expected life-span in the wild. And they live it in misery.

*than in the wild.

"The internet" only makes it easier for people to think they're well-informed, unfortunately.

Good luck with your cause. Even when things seem obvious, there are people who are completely unaware. You may not be able to reach the people who simply do not care, but it's the people who are ignorant to these conditions that you'll hopefully reach.

I'm more than a critic of the zoo. I was one of the cruelty investigators who interviewed zoo workers when the sloth bear was locked up to starve to death. It was simple neglect and carelessness.
I can give you the name of the lead cruelty investigator from the humane society at the time and how frustrated we both were that we were not permitted to file charges against the zoo and those responsible due to the political connection between the zoo and the humane society.
I'm not a disgruntled zoo employee, or any other above stated person. I am a former animal cruelty investigator that saw first hand how neglect, ignorance and the pursuit of someone trying to make a name for themselves caused the unnecessary death of a an animal in the so-called "world renowned" zoo.

Aren't there more worthy causes to protest ?

It's not Planet of the Apes, where humans are the inferior species.

Hoops, like stated earlier, this is not a protest. Not a big fan of protests myself. This is just an opportunity to report cruelty, as there will be cruelty if there's a circus.

Humans have caused a lot of damage out of their "superiority". We destroy habitats, kill the animals, rob them of their mothers and fathers and mates, lock them in small cages, force them into a life of abuse, and discard them as they die only to replace them with more animals who never deserve to be there.

We may have settled into the ranks of the superior species, but our ignorance reaps hardship on anything we deem below us. Humans can not handle the responsibility, they mock it. Some do, I should say. And it's up to the rest, or those who care for more beyond their own, to seek justice and set things straight. Personally, I'd feel horrible to know these tragedies exist only to turn a blind eye.

And everything is intertwined. Each species is important in their own way, leaving a delicately webbed ecosystem. Humans often fail to see that. We rely on these other inferior species much more than I'm guessing you realize.

I'm not a vegan, so who am I to pass judgment?