To the editor:
I waited until the circus and fair season was over because I had no desire to harm the good they do for the region with controversy. I’m writing now to give those who plan these events enough time to affect change.
My appeal to them is that they please cease providing events featuring wild animal acts. It’s no secret that people love these animals and they they’re a draw, but these amusements necessitate capturing, training and exploiting these magnificent animals.
I appeal to those who patronize these amusements to look beyond the 10 minutes of “thrill” they and their children receive during the performance, and visualize the terror and mind-numbing boredom and constraint that is the rest of their lives behind the scenes. The wild elephants who, when free, will walk anywhere from 30-35 miles in a day, are chained to the floor at all times outside the performance or training time. This includes the untold hours while being transported from one site to another. Ever wonder how many elephants are packed into a truck or boxcar? One woman said, “Oh, they look so happy in the ring!” I’d look ecstatic, too, if, after hours and hours of extreme confinement, I was finally allowed to be “free.”
Every once in awhile, we see an elephant go “rogue” at a circus, smashing into things, killing and injuring people, before being shot and killed. We may shrug our shoulders and think, oh, it must have been a “bad” elephant or sick or diseased and it just lost it. But I ask you, as a creature who is free to go anywhere, anytime you please, what would you do if you were suddenly confined by 18-inch chains for hours and hours every single day of your life, only to be set free for brief minutes to entertain those responsible for your confinement and cruelty? I’m only surprised that it doesn’t happen much more often, and thankful it hasn’t happened here, yet.
I’ve used elephants as the example here, but be said for lions, tigers and, yes, “oh, my,” bears. They are confined in tiny cages. These are the “kings of all beasts” and yet we denigrate them into mere shells of what the real item is in the wild. Speaking for myself, I do not see what other people see at these events — people who are laughing and smiling at the spectacle. What I see is a shame on humankind. I see the dark side of my species and I am ashamed to be “human.”
Please, those of you who are responsible for scheduling these amusements, please make sure they do not include the exploitation of these wild animals. I’ve heard people say, “Well, it’s the only chance for our children to see wild animals.” To this I say, “They still haven’t seen them. What they see is a wild animal after we humans have done despicable things to them — a tame, empty shell of the majesty it was.”
Clare Kierstead
Presque Isle
