Animal Circus in Wrexham
coco the clown | 08.09.2007 19:11 | Animal Liberation
http://www.captiveanimals.org/news/2007/retirement.html
Activists set up with placards and leaflets at the entrance to Bobby Roberts Circus, which is in Wrexham this week. Someone from inside the circus, who claimed not to be an employee, came out and suggested that we were creating a traffic problem, but the circus managed to do this all by itself. Performances were timed so that punters from the afternoon were driving out of the single narrow gate onto the dual carriageway at the same time as others were trying to get in the same entrance for the evening show, causing traffic mayhem and leading to several near misses.
In spite of attempts by this non-employee to wave traffic through, many people stopped to pick up a leaflet as they passed, and some turned right back round and left again once they'd read the information. Others who stayed for the show asked for leaflets as they left, but we didn't convince everyone. One woman told us we should be ashamed of ourselves for frightening her children. Never mind the animal suffering, so long as we can keep it from the kids. Another said she didn't know what we were complaining about since "the animals weren't even in cages."
If she'd stopped to pick up a leaflet, she might have found out just what being a circus animal means: travelling between shows every week, sometimes for long distances; long periods confined in cages or tethered on short chains without opportunities to exercise; physical abuse during training; disturbed behaviour caused by the inhumane treatment...
Just last month, a young elephant died in an Irish circus.
Circuses will stop using animals when people stop paying to see them.
Is the circus coming to your town?
coco the clown