The Issue of Animal Cruelty - Essay Example

Animal cruelty Animal cruelty is an issue of serious concern especially when it comes to circuses and zoos due to the poor treatment that animals receive. As a result, it is crucial to understand the sufferings that the animals undergo, the welfare measures used by circuses and zoos, as well as how animals should not face the unethical conduct of trainers. Animals in circuses are faced with a very difficult life of animals’ cruelty. The cruelty is not a thing that can be overtly observed following the performance of animals on a stage, but their abuses occur behind the scenes, before or after the animals have portrayed their exceptional skills to humans. The conditions that the circus animals face are such that animals would wish to escape from it, despite their colorful performances. Animals face cruelty and abuse mainly in three forms in the circuses, which may be familiar to those of zoos. The first is the captivity life where animals in circuses are annexed from their natural habitat, to live a life of travelling with the circus staff. Due to the captive life, the animals are in constant travel translating into poor nutrition and veterinary care meaning that their basic needs are rarely met as opposed to the conditions they would face in the wild fending for themselves. Circus staff are often under the misconception that they are doing the animals a favor by providing food for them, where all the animals have to do is perform a couple of tricks and receive a token of food. Animals used in circuses are normally big and do not have enough space to run and walk around freely as is customary, in their natural habitat. As such, they spend most of their lives in cramped spaces that are barren (Zelman 1). This is to mean that the animals, once released into the wild; cannot survive as their survival instincts are wiped off by captivity. Survival instincts in captivity involve dependence on rations handed out by humans, especially warders and zoo keepers, whereas in the wild they are supposed to fend for themselves. This is just one of the many ways in which animals suffer due to the ignorance of the public and the little that the said humans due to save them from the agony, rather than draw entertainment from them. They also suffer in captivity due to lack of physical contact with others, especially for highly social animals such as chimpanzees. During the off season, when there are no performances, circus animals are usually kept in barns stalls and some in vehicles, which has severe consequences to their mental and psychological wellbeing. In turn, their discomfort translates into unnatural forms of behavior that does not manifest itself in their natural environment. The second form of animal cruelty the beating they receive in order to submit to their trainers. This is because the standard form of training and securing compliance in performances by animals is using physical punishment. Animals in circuses are forced to perform tricks that they do not understand and in which conventional behavior and characteristics do not allow. The animals are repeatedly whipped and subjected to electric shock in order to make them manageable. In addition, to make them manageable, some circuses remove the teeth, horns, and claws of some of the animals to eliminate the risk of harm in training sessions (PETA a 6). Animals are treated to mental bull hooks, especially elephants, which are buried into the flesh and twisted until the animals scream in pain while other circus trainers use blowtorches to remove hair (PETA b). Bull hooks are especially used on elephants, where they are repeatedly hit on their sensitive parts with utter disregard for the safety and wellbeing of the animals, but rather focus on compliance. In addition, animals with manifested signs of distress due to abuse are often locked up or tied up to avoid incidences of showdowns between uncontrollable animals and trainers. The third form of abuse that animals face in the circuses is how animal handlers deal with animal rebels in the circuses, where animals at times cave in under the pressure they are subjected to causing them to attack innocent tourists and visitors, as well as their handlers. This causes the animals to lose their lives in inhumane ways, where they are shot to death in order not to cause chaos and panic in front of visitors (PETA a 12). In some cases, the animals due to the torture they face in the circuses, they turn against their wardens and the members of public, whom they are supposed to be entertaining. Following such events, animals, after going through so much torture, are killed due to the attacks they mount against members of the public. Similarly, animals in zoos are subjected to unnatural environments where they are forced to perform tricks for spectators (“Circuses”1). In order for these animals to perform the tricks, they must first undergo training by an animal trainer who trains them on the routines they are expected to perform in front of an audience. Many zoos around the world subject their animals to neglectful conditions, where some are even chained. The chained animals are restricted concerning movement, a very unnatural and cruel event for animals as they require to move around to maintain their health. Moving around also allows the animals to exercise their bodies and get rid of the boredom they face living their lives in captivity, away from their natural environment. Compared to circuses, animals in zoos have better living conditions owing to the positions that animals in circuses face. This is in regard to the lack of adequate resources that animals have in the places they are kept such as barns with inadequate ventilation and food especially during times when there are no performances. During such times, circus animals are neglected to the extent of forgetting their trained routines such that after the off season, they need retraining, which subjects them to further torture. As a result of this, animals in zoos are in a better position considering that they in service in all seasons meaning that they are not trained repeatedly or face degrading conditions as circus animals face. In comparison, animal welfare in zoos is no different from that in a circus, except on a number of issues that regard backing by authorities. Animals face starvation and lack of adequate drinking water showing the neglect of zoo workers in ascertaining the wellbeing of the animals. Some even die from consuming human food such as sweets or candy and ice cream thrown by tourists, while others died of consuming drugs (“'Shocking cruelty' found in Indonesian zoos”). As such, animals in zoos are protected directly by the law, where those that offend animals or treat them cruelly are under the law; thus are liable for legal action. In such cases, government agencies and other organizations are charged with the responsibility of looking after the wellbeing of the animals, while the zoos are left to the discretion of directors and animal trainers. The difference between the zoo and the circus is due to the sensitivity and use of public resource to maintain the zoos and their higher popularity amongst the public. In addition, due to the nature of zoos in attempting to ensure that the animals are in comfortable conditions, their welfare is looked after in a better way, as opposed to animals in the circus. In the zoo, animals despite being in captivity are subjected to environments that resemble their natural habitat, whereas in circuses, the animals are only for show thus are only kept to serve this purpose with little concern for their health and overall wellbeing. In addition, in zoos animals are not subjected to shows and animal training as often as it is done in circuses. This translates to animals have a more peaceful life in a zoo opposed to life in a circus, where animals are subjected to torturous training sessions and forced to engage in unnatural activities for an audience. Circuses do little to save animals from facing danger in their performances, which translates to poor animal welfare concerns. This is because the training they undergo does not serve any purpose of the animals, ant it puts their lives at risk in spite of training. On the other hand, zoos provide the animals, albeit minimally for their upkeep and comfort and look after their health, which shows better concern for animals in zoos than in circuses. It has also been observed that some of the staff in the zoos attacks the animals for apparent reason, just to relieve their own frustration with their jobs and other issues they may be facing. This can be seen in the case of a member of zoo staff who subjected a wallaby to undocumented and unauthorized euthanasia. The member of staff is said to have found the animal suffering after it fell into the water and, as a result, euthanized it using drugs meant for animals. This just proves how much zoos subject animals to cruelty and torture by denying them the right to live, just because one thinks that the animal is suffering. This is to the extent of killing the animal and dispose of its carcass irresponsibly in a dumpster (Daily Mail Reporter). In spite of the maltreatment in the zoos, some boards have come to condemn the actions of the member of staff and the member was charged with animal cruelty for engaging in such crude behavior. In order to correct the situation, people should be more aware of the situation that animals face under circuses and zoos, as well as how little is down to salvage the situation. This can be done by regulating or restricting the use of animals for entertainment. This is because the animals used in circuses have nothing new to teach or prove to humans. As a result, the animals are only subjected to unnecessary torture for the benefits of human amusement and financial wellbeing of circus and zoo directors. It is for this reason that numerous groups are coming up against animal abuse and cruelty in circuses and zoos. In conclusion, animals in circuses and zoos face life threatening situations and conditions that torment their physical and psychological wellbeing that qualifies it as animal torture. As such, circuses should ease to train animals by banning the use animals for performances to entertain an audience. Works cited People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals-PETAan.d.Circuses: Three Rings of Abuse.Web. 1 Dec. 2012. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals-PETAbn.d.Circuses.Web. 1 Dec. 2012.< http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-in-entertainment/circuses.aspx> Zelman,Joanna.Circus Animal Abuse: Parents Conflicted Over Taking Their Children To The Show (VIDEO). Huffington Post.2012. Web. 1 Dec. 2012. < http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/09/circus-animal-abuse_n_1760034.html> “'Shocking cruelty' found in Indonesian zoos”.BBC.2002.Web. 1 Dec. 2012. Daily Mail Reporter.Femalezoo keeper charged with animal cruelty after euthanising wallaby and dumping it in a bin.Mail Online. 2012.Web. 1 Dec. 2012. “Circuses”.AnimalAid.n.d. 1 Dec. 2012. 7 Read More