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WHY CIRCUSES ARE NO PLACE FOR ANIMALS

A circus is no place for any animal, especially not an intelligent and highly social animal such as the elephant and Irish Circuses, Australian Super Circus in particular use African elephants to "perform" at their shows as well as horses, kangaroos, dogs and other wild animals.

An investigation into Irish Circuses carried out by the Captive Animals' Protection Society (CAPS) was done in 2006/7.

Their findings were disturbing to say the least and CAPS are working tirelessly to educate the public on why circuses are no places for animals whilst promoting animal free circuses.

The circuses investigated were;

1. The Australian Super Circus or Circus Sydney as it's also known (which advertises itself as an Australian circus but is in fact German)
2. Tom Duffy’s Circus
3. Circus Gerbola
4. Circus Hoffenburg
5. Royal Russian Circus 
6. Circus Vegas

Please click on the following link and have a look at CAPS' website which includes info from their investigation: www.irishcircuses.org

Please also have a look at this website which highlights the plight of circus animals: www.circuses.com/introduction.asp

Animals being exploited for profit, particularly wild animals is something the Rainbow Rehoming Refuge strongly opposes and urges animal lovers in the Derry and surrounding areas not to support such circuses and to educate their children on why circuses are no place for animals because as long as people continue to pay to see these animals "perform" the animals in question have no hope of escaping this miserable existence. 

If you do visit a circus please keep in mind that the "tricks" the animals perform in the ring are unnatural and are a result of years of forced and often abusive training with bullhooks and electric prods being used to train elephants to the point where they do not perform because they enjoy it but because they are afraid not to.

Between shows the elephants are either chained by their feet in tents or enclosed in a small area surrounded by an electric wire. Once the shows are over all the animals are moved again to another town often spending hours travelling in dark lorries.

A circus is no place for any animal, especially not an intelligent and highly social animal such as the elephant and Irish Circuses, Circus Sydney in particular use two African elephants to "perform" at their shows as well as horses, kangaroos, dogs and other wild animals.

This year the australian super circus / circus sydney in drumahoe will use 2 elephants in their shows.

A number of Councils in both the North and South of Ireland have supported a motion to ban animal circuses using council owned land and the reason for this is that many people believe there is no place for such exploitation in our society anymore. 

A statement below by a spokesperson of the Captive Animals Protection Society sums up how we and an increasing number of people across the world feel in regards to animal circuses:

 "The days of animals in circuses should be a thing of the past. For wild creatures to be caged, dragged across towns and countries and made to 'perform' for our benefit is archaic and disgusting."