The circus is in town this week and although it may not be your dream activity, especially if you’re scared of clowns, you may be considering taking your kids to experience the magic and excitement of the greatest show on earth. You remember it…the candy, the popcorn, balloons, tents, tricks, music, tigers and bears – even elephants. I remember the first time I saw a live elephant. Not at a circus, but at a zoo in Florida. I was absolutely, positively thrilled that I got to ride him (or her) and could not have fathomed that the elephant was not equally thrilled to be giving me a ride.
First, a few things that you, as a mom, will appreciate:
- Elephants always listen to their mamas! Living in a matriarchal society. Imagine that!
- If a baby complains, the entire family will rumble and go comfort it.
- Wild females stay with their mothers, aunts and cousins for LIFE. Males do not leave the herd until their teens.
- They can have offspring up until they are around fifty years old.
- They grieve at a loss of a stillborn baby, a family member, and in many cases over elephants not in their group.
- They have greeting ceremonies when a friend who has been away for some time returns to the herd.
The circus may be a fun place for people, but here are five things you should know about elephants in the circus:
- Circus elephants are captured from the wild and separated from their family at a very young age, sold, and then shipped to spend a life in the circus – which can last over 50 years. They are NEVER returned to the wild.
- Every Asian elephant taken from the wild endured a breaking process (“the crush”), which involves beating with nail-studded sticks, sleep-deprivation, hunger, and thirst to break the animals’ spirits.
- Elephants born into captivity in circuses are taken from their mothers as infants younger than two years old, for training and performance
- They spend almost 300 days a year “working on the road” – transported by trains and chained or penned up between shows
- They perform unnatural tricks that are often damaging to their bodies. Believe it or not, wild elephants do not stand on their heads or on two legs. 🙂
There’s a lot more information out there about circus animals and other organizations that use wild animals for entertainment – and I encourage you to research and draw your own conclusions, but I think we can all agree that family bonds of all creatures, great and small, should not be broken.
If you decide not to patronize circuses that use animals for entertainment, don’t worry… your kids can still experience some glitz and glamour, and they can still learn to appreciate the wonders of the wild.
Consider taking the kids to traveling Broadway shows (Lion King anyone?!) and Circque du Soleil. In Charlotte, we have the Carolina Raptor Center, dedicated to environmental stewardship and the conservation of birds of prey through education and the rehabilitation, and the Charlotte Nature Museum.
Sources: www.elephants.com / www.helpelephants.com
**A note from Katie – I’m not here to judge your decision to take your child to the circus. My decision (regardless of how I feel about animal treatment) is easy – I avoid the circus at all costs. I’m literally allergic to it. However, I do feel that we should be armed with as much information as possible, so thought it would be great to share this blog post with you. Feel free to comment if you have additional things you’d like to add!
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