Animals in Circuses

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Animals in Circuses Animals in circuses are widely used worldwide, but are they treated fairly? There are plenty of debates about this growing issue. Animals always should be treated with the upmost care and respect, however this is not the case with some circuses. But not all circuses treat their animals so harshly. Some of the trainers and circus staff would argue that they provide suitable care and support to their animals but some inspections contradict that fact. This essay will show evidence on why there needs to be better laws and management on how circuses treat animals. Circuses first started in Rome and the first circus was called the Circus Maximus it was almost solely used for chariot races but occasionally it was used for events such as gladiator fights. Animals have been used in circuses since the first circus was made now they are used in performances in such peculiar and cruel ways such as elephant conga lines, flaming hoop jumping and unicycle riding. Some acts are not so dangerous like using common animals such as dogs to be a partner in a juggling act. Some 30 countries have banned the use of exotic animals in circuses the ones that have not banned are doing a poor job of making sure animals are properly trained. Training exotic animals is obviously hard because the animals should not be learning these tricks and should be out in their natural habitat. Since training these animals is hard and dangerous, some trainers have resulted to fear and violence to assert their dominance, harsh penalties to the animals for not completing tricks (e.g. starvation). There have been some cases of elephants falling on top of people and the person getting crushed such an occurrence happened on December 27, 2007 when an elephant was being unloaded of a truck and fell on a staff member crushing him to death. Other risks to trainers are large cats such as

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