Circuses unhealthy for wild animals

The World Society for Protection of Animals is totally opposed to exhibitions or presentations of wild animals in circuses and travelling menageries (Circuses Not Cruel To Animals, Says Animal Welfare Director, December 9).

Animal circus shows in general communicate an irresponsible message to the public - that it is acceptable to exploit animals solely for entertainment purposes. They may also greatly misrepresent animals by forcing them to perform unnatural, repetitive and demeaning acts.

Many wild animals used in circus shows (such as tigers, alligators and bears) are naturally shy, solitary creatures requiring large, complex natural habitats for their physical and psychological well-being. A bright, noisy circus arena is a bewildering and stressful environment to them. Many circus performance activities force animals to adopt unnatural postures and behaviours for long periods of time, placing physical stress on their joints.

This is in no way representative of normal behaviour for wild animals, and can adversely affect their welfare.

Tactics such as withholding food and delivering punishment are commonplace when training animals for entertainment, causing severe physical and psychological stress.

When the animals are not performing degrading tricks they are kept in cramped cages, continually travelling from one town to the next. While on the road, animals may often be kept in inappropriate social groupings (i.e. social animals like elephants kept isolated) and stress can be induced by natural predator/prey animals being housed in close proximity to one another.

Our society is the world's largest alliance of animal welfare organisations, with consultative status at the UN and Council of Europe. Through partnership with hundreds of member societies we strive to create a world where animal welfare matters and animal cruelty ends. We bring about change at both grassroots and governmental levels, to benefit animals.

For more information go to http://www.wspa-international.org/ .