Bear in mind when you read this that the government did not have the
courage to actually ban circus animals or the keeping of primates as
pets. They preferred to leave them as ostensibly permitted but pointed
out that if politically campaigning organisations (such as the RSPCA)
believed that the welfare needs of such animals could not be met then it
was open for them to prosecute.
So wealthy organisations can effectively apply legal economic terrorism,
they will be able to bring case after case against an individual
business until either they win a case or the business folds, bankrupt
from the cost of defending itself.
The price of freedom indeed.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,1072-1987498,00.html
The Times January 16, 2006
Stop this cruelty to circuses
Dea Birkett
Animal rights extremists are threatening the unique world of the big top
WHEN WERE you so close to an elephant that you could touch its trunk?
Where did you see a horse racing around just inches away, mane and tail
flying? Where have you patted the tufty hair of a camel? The only place
you could have done all these things is at a circus.
I've worked in a circus. I've pulled on my fishnet tights, tied up my
tassles, adjusted my white feather headdress and ridden into the ring on
the back of Julia, my elephant. I've heard the crowd gasp, then roar,
responding to the spectacle of woman and large beast working so closely
together, as if dancing. Then, when the big top empties, I've watched
the trainers tend to the animals, making sure they are watered, fed and
bedded first.
This simple, sensual human-animal contact may soon be banned. The Animal
Welfare Bill that is progressing through Parliament has the admirable
intention of improving animals' lot. But, if passed, it would also be a
powerful weapon in the hands of the anti-circus lobby that wants to ban
all animal acts, whether dogs, donkeys or big cats. It portrays cruel
animal trainers ambushing lions in the African bush and carrying them
back in a cage. In fact, all circus animals are born in captivity. Also,
many animals we think of as wild are seen as domestic in the rest of the
world. In India, for example, elephants are regarded in the same way as
horses here. Camels, too, are almost always working animals.
There is nothing wrong with training animals to perform — whether it's a
racehorse or the family dog learning how to stop at the kerbside.
According to the animal behaviourist Marthe Kiley-Worthington, who was
commissioned by the RSPCA to report on animals in circuses, animals
enjoy being taught new tricks. She concluded that it was wrong to
presume animals should always be kept in a primitive, so-called natural
state. Just as some human beings enjoy stretching their physical
capabilities, like athletes and circus artistes, so do some animals.
Of course, cruelty to animals should be punished, wherever it occurs.
But circus people aren't by definition cruel, any more than are pet
owners. Accusations that they wantonly use whips are unfounded. Most
whips I've seen have been used at gymkhanas and dressage events,
including the Olympics, where horses are lashed far more than in any
circus ring. If we want to stop displaying animals for our own
entertainment, then let's start with banning the local horse show on the
village green.
The wonder of the circus is how human and animal lives are entwined.
When my circus arrived at each new pitch, the first thing we did was
erect a wire around a vast paddock, so the elephants could roam freely.
During the night, they would nudge up against the side of my trailer,
their trunks tickling the outside walls. In the next trailer, the couple
with the dog act would be sleeping among their animals, breathing each
others' air. On the other side, the horses were stabled, near enough to
their trainer so he could hear their snorts. No other people live so
closely with the animals that they care for. It reminds us that we are
not that distant from them. To ban circuses is to believe that we are so
very different from all other animals that there can never be a meeting
point. Dr Kiley-Worthington called this "animal apartheid".
After 20 years of assault from animal-rights activists, Britain's circus
community is under threat. The might of organisations such as the Born
Free Foundation, funded by celebrities, together with the the RSPCA, is
wielded against this tiny minority. Last week Born Free farcically
called for an end to "elephants eating ice-cream" for our entertainment,
as if this were happening on a daily basis in rings from Brighton to
Birmingham. In fact, there's only one circus elephant left in Britain,
and she no longer performs.
Circus people are the endangered species, nomads with their own language
— Parlari — a mix of English backslang, Italian, Yiddish and Romany,
from which "flatties" (parlari for non-circus folk) get the words gaffer
and josser. In any other country, such an indigenous tribe would be
awarded huge grants to preserve its unique culture. But in Britain, they
are persecuted and bullied by the more extreme activists. When these
extremists can't legitimately prevent a circus pitching, they resort to
more terrifying tactics. I've been in trailers late at night, where
children were asleep, listening to the sound of stones being thrown at
the walls. A circus proprietor friend woke one morning to find an
incendiary device underneath his car.
The Animal Welfare Bill gives great succour to those who want to destroy
circus life. Born Free boasts that the Bill will "effectively end the
use of wild animals in circuses". Yet, despite all the protests, the
propaganda and threats, people continue to flood into the big top. There
is simply no entertainment like circus — the brilliant colours, the
familiar drum roll, the pungent, intoxicating smell of the sawdust. The
Greatest Show on Earth doesn't have only a human cast. Horses and
performers, camels and trainers, elephants and their riders can live,
work and entertain others, happily together.
www.deabirkett.com
--
Fenris Wolf
RSPCA-Animadversion
http://cheetah.webtribe.net/~animadversion/
SHG
http://the-shg.org
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