Whenever I wake up feeling all optimistic and generous about this world, it usually means that a cold wake-up call is fast on its way.
Take today, it only took a letter on this website to remind me precisely why sharing the same air as some people can be more of a pain than I can take. Thank you, Mr Allan Gatt, for restoring my cynicism and my lack of faith in a good portion of the human race.
Mr Gatt had a lovely and extremely logical (and by logical, I mean delusional) rant this morning, which you can read here - about exactly why those of us who would like to see animal circuses abolished are “limp, strained and insincere”.
We now have it on Mr Gatt’s good authority that circus animals probably have a better life than us because...wait for it... they “have the privilege of touring the world”.
The argument would be hilarious, if only it didn’t point to a rather worrying decline in the collective I.Q., given the amount of people who have been making these same observations.
Right. I’m sure every single lion, zebra and giraffe that is trapped for miles in a stinky, small cage can’t wait to thank its jail-keeper for the wonderful tourism opportunity.
Because constant travel in cramped quarters when nature meant you to be sprinting across some savannah sounds exactly like a five-star holiday to me.
Then, of course, there is the equally risible statement that “circuses without animals are as unthinkable as pubs without alcoholic beverages”. I’m sure that the team behind Cirque du Soleil would have something to say about that.
Not to mention the fact that if you find a lion jumping through a hoop of fire entertaining, well... there’s not a lot to be said for the calibre of your social life, if there? Offensive of me? Yeah I know. But I’m pretty sure the lion finds it even more offensive to be forced to carry out these ridiculous acts.
Repeating Mr Gatt’s arguments here is superfluous. Read his letter and decide for yourself. The nature of his arguments are so impossible that I’m half-convinced that he is taking the... ok, let’s avoid giving my editor a heart-attack and go with he is taking us for a ride.
For his sake, I sure hope so. Because if not, a crash course in logical thinking is certainly in order.