Poor clown worshippers.
The irony is that the PETA people, who oppose zoos and circuses, were probably first exposed to these animals at zoos and circuses when they were children. The circle of life.
Or maybe David Attenborough
Yeah, the time of circuses, animal cruelty and child labor. I miss those days of yesteryear!
Time moves on. Oh, and the hippies didn’t ruin nuclear power, either.
They weren’t viable with elephants and they weren’t viable without elephants. They were declining for quite a while even before the controversy. That form of entertainment had become passe.
In past years, people also wanted to gape at dwarfs, bearded ladies, and real or alleged human mutations.
Not everything about the circus was evil, of course, and lots of it was pure fun. But the drive for entertainment and profit was pretty unscrupulous. If human rights and animal rights activists helped put an end to suffering caused by this kind of exploitation, human and animal alike, then it’s a result worth celebrating. Recent discoveries of abuses in private zoos and sea parks that have resulted in criminal charges are part of the same progress. There’s lots of wonder to be found in observing animals in their natural habitats, or enlightened zoos in which they live their lives unmolested in open spaces that are some semblance of their natural habitats.
I’ve always hated circuses. Clowns scared me when I was a little kid (so did Santa Claus FTR). And I never thought it was right to have performing animals. Good riddance, I say.
Well, you’ll always have this painfully researched and photographed account.
Indeed the end of an era. I don’t deny my worries for the animals and their treatments, though from what I’ve read, they treated their animals quite well. Some argue that keeping them and training them to perform AT ALL was not right. I guess they’re right, even though they probably treated their animals well compared to smaller, less reputable operations. I suppose it’s all for the best. Times change,
Speaking of worrying. . .I was both amazed and worried by the HUMAN acts, and I kinda just wanted to give them a few dollars to please stop doing that on my account. No, I didn’t go to the circus often, but I went a few times. I was taken as a child a few times, I once took a child, and once happened upon a circus act at an amusement park by accident. Thank goodness I did not knowingly see anyone hurt at any point.
The circus act I once stumbled upon was the Nock family doing an 80-foot sway-bar performance in a small park in Pennsylvania. Outdoors. While it was sprinkling rain. And thunder was moving in. And the wind was kicking up. This was one of those times I REALLY just wanted to give them money to stop. Bello Nock eventually joined Ringing Brothers and was a headliner. I couldn’t remember the name of the performers, but I remembered that crazy hair-do, and I found out who he was years later.
Problem is, when they abolished the freak shows the freaks were left with a means to make a living. Yeah, they were “saved” from exhibition but no one else was willing to hire them, so they went from what might have been a comfortable income (sometimes very comfortable) to being on welfare and neglected. Not all of them saw that as an improvement.
At least they didn’t just abandon the elephants beside the road somewhere but made sure they’d be taken care of. Pity that isn’t likely to happen for the humans that will now be unemployed.
The problem is that PETA won’t stop with circuses, they also want zoos gone, enlightened or not. If these people have their way the only place American kids will be able to see lions, tigers and elephants is on TV and the net. That would be a damn shame.
Is it possible that PITA is correct about something but not about others?
While I completely support unemployment benefits and retraining for all laid-off employees, it doesn’t sound as though the non-circus workforce is really going to be all that strained in absorbing these workers:
My take on this is that better communications and entertainment choices have made a circus or a vaudeville variety show obsolete. Think of decades ago (even before photography) when the only way you could see some animals or events was by being there, or having them come to you. Now you can view just about anything on a TV or computer at home, on demand, and cheaply.
this is still not soon enough ! It should shut down right now ! I only went there once b/c my daughter and mother wanted to go . It was so depressing being there b/c I was very aware of how the animals were treated. The end of hell for animas is coming to an end !
I’m sad about the band. They were using a lot of prerecorded tracks anyway, but now the circus band tradition really is gone.
Most of the animals were probably treated at least as well as animals at rodeos. I always felt the handlers at the circus gave a shit about the elephants and tigers. Never got that feeling with the bulls at rodeos.
Is it possible that it’s completely irrelevant whether they’re right or not? It’s whether their pressure tactics work and they probably will.
Luckily, PETA isn’t in charge. Sounds like a slippery slope argument. The purpose of zoos and their usefulness is debatable anyway, and some “zoos” should probably be shut down. Do you really want to bring your kids to see a mentally ill lion, tiger or elephant pacing its little cage? What are your kids supposed to learn from that?
I have wonderful memories of going to the circus as a young kid back in the '50s. Of course at that age I had no concept of cruelty toward animals, and neither did most adults. But I remember sitting in the front row with my brother when a clown came to us and asked us to squeeze his nose. As a 4-year-old I loved how it honked and lit up! But my older brother was scared shitless. I had no idea that some people were scared of my beloved clowns.
Decades later, in the early '80s, GMHC had one of the first AIDS benefits at the circus. It was a great occasion, with Leonard Bernstein conducting the band (I got to meet him). Though it was a sold-out event, public opinion was changing, and there were protests.
All in all, I’m sorry to see it go. Even without the animal abuse, the circus was lots of fun.