Research

Circuses, rodeos, and petting zoos all sound extremely amusing and innocent; however, how are the animals really being treated? The reality is much different then what you would expect. Animals are the protagonists of these entertainments, yet after much investigation, we discovered that animals sometimes suffer from brutal beatings, malnutrition, and neglect. Unfortunately, people are ignorant about the truth, but Animal Protection Services exists to inform. We want to make a difference in the precious lives of innocent animals that have a right to happily live where they belong.  Animal Protection Services’ goal is to raise awareness and educate communities; together, we can make a difference.

For our budget analysis, we plan to raise enough money to buy a cage for an animal at the Austin non-profit Zoo. The Austin zoo spends $72,000 on animal care a month, $860,000 a year. A small bird enclosure costs about $5,000. Helping this organization reach the amount of money they need will be tough, but with these ideas we can try our best to help. Ways we can try to raise money would be:

  • Bake sale
  • Barbeque?
  • Coffee or snack stand
  • Some kind of “party” with low ticket prices
  • Karaoke night
  • Videogame tournament with admission

            Zoos allow people to see wild life animals from only a few feet behind a fenced cage. However animals that are being displayed are “wild,” they belong in their natural habitats, not in manmade homes. In zoos they are kept in cages, maintained, cleaned, and fed; and although this might seem harmless, to the animals it could be deadly. Wild animals belong in the wild, therefore when they are maintained they lose their ability to survive in the wild and can die if they are ever released from the zoo.

            The type of animal abuse that zoos commit is using the animals for displaying purposes. Although zoos attempt to educate and breed extinct animals, the reality is that animals suffer from depressing circumstances in which they live in. their zoo homes do not provide a fraction of the way the animal’s life should be in the wild. “A survey of the records of 4,500 elephants both in the wild and in captivity found that the median life span for an African elephant in a zoo was 16.9 years, whereas African elephants on a nature preserve died of natural causes at a median age of 56 years” (Zoos: Pitiful prisons).

            Animals should never be taken out of their natural habitat for human entertainment purposes. Thankfully there are non-profit zoos that only take animals that are abused and care for them the best way possible. Every individual should carefully choose which zoos to go to and encourage local zoos to not capture animals from the wild and never to breed wild animals.

            Everybody knows what a circus is a place full of joy and family gathering, tricks and clowns and performers. We may all think the animals are looked after properly and taken care of, but when in reality they aren’t. They’re abused and even neglected.

The animals are trained to perform these dangerous tricks by trainers who use things like bull hooks, ropes to tie them down, whips, tight muzzles, electric prods, tight collars, and other painful tools. Trainers claim to use “positive-reinforcement”, but in circuses that doesn’t exist. The performing animals are transported from show to show in 18 wheeler trailers or in train cars with barely enough room to turn around and elephants are chained in place unable to walk. After many repetitive movements by these animals they start to perform subconscious movements due to psychological stress such as swaying back and forth in their chains or pacing their cages. Big cats such as lions and tigers are forced into tiny cages for transport that only allows minimal movement.

Monkeys and chimpanzees that included in the acts of some circuses are also treated poorly. They are hit with sticks, starved, trapped in tiny cages, kicked, and tortured into doing the ‘tricks’ they perform.

Many circuses and some schools claim that circuses are educational to children about animals, while they really aren’t. Circuses provide very unnatural circumstances for animals causing them to act differently than they would in the wild or even in a zoo, circuses claim that their tricks are based off of natural movements the animals perform in the wild, but elephants don’t do hand stands and lions don’t jump through flaming hoops in the wild.

Circuses in Sweden, Costa Rica, Austria, Finland, India, and Singapore have banned or restricted the use of animals in their circuses.

There is a quote by Thomas Edison that we found interesting; he said “Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages.” He is basically stating that animal abuse leads to low ethics creating a savage society while not having animal abuse leads to prosperity among life.

Rodeos are a fun family event that just about everyone loves to go to. It’s exciting to see the cowboys and cowgirls ride the horses in a certain way, see the bravest of the brave try to stay on the raging bulls the longest and just have flat-out fun! But what most people don’t ask themselves it; “is this really in any way harmful or cruel to the animals in the show?” Well the answer to this question depends on how you look at it. The way our group, A.P.S, thinks of the question is yes. We believe the livestock in rodeos is cruel, inhumane and harmful.

In the rodeo, all you see is the exciting and intense play of a rider catching or roping the other animal in between 8 to 30 seconds. It’s exciting to see if the contestant can do it! But when you really think about it and you see all that is going on, it can be heartbreaking. Some of the animals don’t survive their event in the rodeo and other is severely injured.

Have you ever thought about how that 4 to 5 month old calf feels when he or she is running for his or her life in fear and then some rope wraps around its neck, jerks it into the air then on the ground to its back, possibly breaking the neck, and next thing you know some human is tying its legs together for points? How about that bull that looks like its insane? Did you know that being “insane” is not its natural state?

Animals in the rodeo are not as crazy as they seem. For example, those “insane” bulls I just recently mentioned actually are “forced to wear tight bucking straps that pinch into their highly sensitive abdomen and groin area (from the ASPCA website).” This also goes for the broncos or horses. The calves that come racing out of their pens were also harmed before being released. ASPCA again states that, “calves may have their tails twisted before leaving the chute.” Does any of this so far sound humane to you in any way?

The animals at rodeos can and usually are injured if not killed during their events. “Injuries to animals, including sprains and bruises, broken limbs, ripped tendons, broken necks and even deaths occur. The worst injuries happen to young animals, such as calves, in roping and wrestling events. “Can you imagine being the cause of injuring any of these animals if not killing them? Honestly, you have to be heartless to walk away not feeling guilty after hurting a helpless animal such as these. The ASPCA posted these ways to help on their site:

“There are many ways you can help end the cruelties of the rodeo industry:”

  • Do not attend rodeo events. When a rodeo comes to your area, make sure the correct permits have been obtained. Also, contact your local law enforcement agency or humane society and ask them to make sure the rodeo follows local and state laws regarding the humane treatment of animals.
  • Educate family and friends about the animal welfare problems and safety concerns related to rodeo events.
  • Attend a city council meeting. Counties, cities and even universities have succeeded in keeping cruel circuses out by banning wild and exotic animal performances. If you’re interested in passing a similar ordinance where you live, get involved in your local government.
  • Fight for state and federal laws that protect animals and raise the minimum allowable standards of care. Join the ASPCA Advocacy Brigade to be alerted when it’s time to take action on animal-related legislation.

Please help be a voice for these animals.

A majority of people believe that petting zoos are a great place to take your young children so they can enjoy the small animals. People think those cute little animals are properly taken care of, some even think the animals are spoiled because they are visited by children who pet and feed them. Unfortunately, in reality the animals are not treated right at all. The animals face a hard life due to the fact that people are using them for their entertainment purposes.

The animals suffer stress, traveling trauma, irregular feedings, different environments, and crowds of different people. As you can tell animals are not supposed to go through this, they are not meant to be put in small cages and be placed in the back of a hot truck. Animals are supposed to be in a stable environment that has everything they need to survive. The result of not taking proper care of the animals is not good as you can tell, it’s not even good for the people who visit the animals.

Peta said in one of their issues that “Health officials indicate that petting zoos are
hotbeds of serious pathogens, including E. coli and salmonella bacteria. Experts warn that infections can spread through direct or even indirect animal contact. The area surrounding the animal’s cage can be teeming with bacteria, and children can even bring it home on their clothing. The very young, the elderly, and others with weakened immune systems are especially at risk.” Animals will be animals they can’t control what they carry unfortunately.

Another result is there have been a few incidents of exotic animals attacking people. The wild animals attack because they are forced to be with the people, and because they are WILD ANIMALS.

My experience on trying to find out more about petting zoos was actually pretty hard; the petting zoos I called or emailed would not contact me back about their animals. So that lead me to believe that there is something wrong, and that they are trying to hide something from the
public.

What Peta recommends:

Don’t allow animal act promoters to pass off their exploitation of animals as entertainment or conservation. By educating others and showing that cruelty to animals is neither fun nor ethical, you can help stop animal exploitation.

  • Stay away from petting zoos and other animal attractions. Let kids experience animals in their own habitats—and from a safe distance—by taking a nature hike, renting a nature documentary, or going bird-watching.
  • Contact PETA to learn of any problems associated with a specific exhibitor.
  • Voice your concerns to the fair organizers, shopping mall manager, or other promoters, and make it clear that the fair, mall, etc., will be boycotted if the exotic animal exhibition is booked.
  • Be on the scene when the animals arrive to look for violations of the Animal Welfare Act as well as local and state cruelty laws. Take photographs or video footage. If you see possible violations, try to get a veterinarian to verify your findings, and report your observations to your local animal control officer, the state department of agriculture, and the USDA.
  • Organize a demonstration, and notify the media in time for them to cover your protest.
  • Find out where the exhibitor is going when it leaves your community. Contact humane societies and activists in that area. Let them know what you did in your area, and ask them to do the same. You can obtain a list of animal rights groups in a specific state by calling PETA’s International Grassroots Campaigns Department.
  • Write a letter to the editor urging people not to patronize animal shows.

Animals fights in Texas and even in the United States is becoming a really high passing time, for spectators, and for the owners of the animals. Most people over look animal fights but with them becoming a major problem in all states, people are forced to open their eyes to what is happening.

There are tons of different types of animal fights, but the most occurring animal fight is dog fighting. Most people who hear the words “dog fighting” think of two dogs that just fight until the owners make them stop, but they would be mistaken. Dog fights usually never end until one of the dogs is dead or dying. When a dog dies it is left there until the owner comes back later to bury it, or ditch it somewhere no one will be able to find it. When the dog is hurt bad enough that it can’t fight anymore, or most times cant even move the dog fight is over and the owner leaves it there to die. A lot of times dog fights are held inside a person’s basement, or secretly held in the middle of fields and farms so that it isn’t noticeable.  The fighter digs a circle in the ground usually 3-4 feet under the ground so that the animals can not try to escape during the fight or attack a spectator. The owners throw the dogs in the hole; sometimes the long fall causes the dogs to break a leg and began as the weaker link causing that particular dog to be most likely to die. Countless dog fights have been stopped and raided. With the owners being arrested, fined, and even put in jail. Spectators have also been fined and given up to 180 days in jail.

       Watching an animal fight may seem like fun to people but they don’t realize that they are able to be arrested along with the owners of the animals. This is because without the spectators the owners would have no incentive to continue abusing dogs in this manner. Along with the fact that half to all of the spectators in animal fights gamble by betting on animals they think will win or will lose. And illegal gambling is against the law, especially gambling on the lives of an animal that is being abused in an animal fight.  It is a misdemeanor in Texas if a person causes two or more dogs to fight or owns and trains a dog to fight just for the profit of their own pleasure. You are charged with fines ranging from $500-4,000. This law should be harder and seen as a serious crime because once you have been charged once with the crime, even if it is a misdemeanor crime you are regularly checked up on to make sure that you are not participating/causing any types of animal fights, you are then charged with a felony of animal abuse/animal fights.  The felony is causing a dog to fight for the gain of money. Additionally, operating a dog fighting arena or knowingly allowing your property to be used for dog fighting is a jail felony. Where you can be put into jail, for at the least 180 and up to 5 years, with fines of up to $250,000.

 Animal fights are a cruel way to treat an animal that is here to be nothing less than your friend and companion. When a dog is raised to be a dog fighter they grow up knowing nothing more than to fight and kill. Then when they are finally taken by the police they are forced to put the dog down because it is unable to be around other dogs or animals without harming them. Sometimes the animals get new homes and they turn against the owner making the owner put them back into the shelter in which they were rescued from where they are eventually put down because of over population in the shelter. Don’t participate in animal fights period. Don’t cause them. Don’t watch them. Don’t even think about if it would be interesting to watch them, because they all end the same, with another helpless dog being killed and injured for the pleasure of sick people who have nothing better to do than watch as animals fight and kill each other. It’s not worth the consequences.

Animals for entertainment are a form of abuse not many people acknowledge, because of the publicity and money. These organizations do not care for their animals properly and do not have safe and humane regulations. As a group, we can try to fix these issues by not supporting circuses, petting zoos, etc. Try to help others raise awareness like the Animal Protective Services Jr. group is attempting to do. These animals need all the help they can get.

Bibliography:

 

 

  • The ASPCA organization

 

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