Next time you go to the circus, take a look at how the animals are behaving. Notice if they look like they’re enjoying themselves. I’d be willing to bet they’re not.

Animals who perform in circuses are

treated very poorly. Most of them were taken from their families, in the wild, at a young age and sold to a circus. Many of them have seen their mothers murdered right in front of them. Training these wild animals to do unnatural tricks is a very cruel business.

Trainers often hit the animals and sometimes beat them with metal pipes and wooden bats. In the case of elephants, they are often beaten with bullhooks – a stick with a hook on the end that is usually used to rip the tender skin behind the knee, the trunk or the ears. Some circuses own electric prods which they use to hit or beat the animals. Sometimes trainers break animals’ noses (as in the case of bears) and burn their front paws in order to make them stand on their hind legs. Many circus animals are chained up for a very large portion of their lives and get very little exercise. They are often kept in cages barely big enough for their bodies, where they are unable to turn around or lay down comfortably. Circus animals are transported in metal boxcars in all kinds of weather, from freezing cold, where animals sometimes freeze to the side of their boxcars, to unbearable heat, where they can suffer from dehydration and even die. Usually the smaller the circus, the smaller the amount of food, water and veterinary care that is available for the animals.

Even large and well-known circuses have been accused of violations of the Animal Welfare Act. Their animals, like all circus animals, are forced to dress up in foolish clothes and to perform humiliating and dangerous acts. Tigers don’t jump through rings of fire because they like it. Bears don’t ride bicycles wearing a tutu because they think it’s fun. They know that the only alternative to performing these tricks is get beaten, burned and otherwise tortured.

There are many alternatives to using a circus with animal acts as a fund-raiser or for entertainment. Please don’t support these cruel and inhumane acts. Help the animals by not attending these horrible events. Don’t give these circuses your money. Let them go out of business. Please attend only circuses that feature no animal acts.