"The Greatest Show on Earth" is ending

[joe-eyeball]

I have experience in caring for animals in a zoo environment and I wholly believe in zoos continuing to operate! I view the animals in zoos as the ambassadors for the remainder of their species in the wild! It's hard to get people to become informed or care about something if they can't see or experience it for themselves. I do however draw the line when a "park" or circus use the animals to "perform". I simply cannot get behind that level of exploitation! Please show me a case occurring naturally where an elephant puts on a sequin laden outfit and balances itself on a giant ball for the entertainment of others? Or, where a killer whale jumps and flips on command to splash children with an adult riding on its back? I'm not saying that all of these animals are being "abused" in the tradition sense of animal abuse but it's not necessary for the exploitation of these animals to go that far!

[Andrew NDB]

I think we should free all of the horses, let them back into the wild. They're being abused by all the people forcing them to let them ride them around like some kind of living bicycles.

Same with teaching dogs tricks. Very unfair to the animals. Let them go back into the forests.

[Prowler]

I used to love going to the circus when I was a kid.

And if you guys think circuses are bad then don't look up videos of bullfighting. That actually airs here on state owned TV on prime time schedule. Nothing says family entertainment like seeing a bullfighter riding a horse and trying to stick giant iron spikes on a bull's back. But it's legal and not considered animal abuse because "culture".

[joe-eyeball]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

I think we should free all of the horses, let them back into the wild. They're being abused by all the people forcing them to let them ride them around like some kind of living bicycles.

Same with teaching dogs tricks. Very unfair to the animals. Let them go back into the forests.

SURE WHY NOT! Let's also release our houseplants back into the wild since that is clearly plant abuse! Your statement is about as ridiculous as that! Look zoos, horseback riding, dogs performing tricks, sea world, circuses, and raising animals for food products are all forms of exploitation and even some of it very abusive! Your statement of domesticated dogs and horses really is apples and oranges when compared to killer whales in pools and elephants balancing on balls! I mean there has to be a limit to what people do! Right? Or are you simply taking an all or nothing approach! When do the negative consequences of the "animal abuse" outweigh the potential for gain and make it not worthwhile? What is your line in the sand?

[Utrommaniac]

You should probably brush up on Andrew's sense of sarcasm...

[joe-eyeball]

Originally Posted by Utrommaniac

You should probably brush up on Andrew's sense of sarcasm...

It's funny you say that because I almost prefaced my previous post with something to the effect of how I know you're just trying to be funny or incite a response but I figured screw it! I'm well aware of his sarcasm and his usual trolling ways but I'd bet money he actually buys into what he's is saying on some level! Someone will probably let me know that I'm off base but whatever? I'm really not interested in changing his or anyone else's mind I guess.

[Metalwolf]

Originally Posted by plastroncafe

Hold people accountable, sure.
Run them into the ground because of broad-brush painting? Is crap.

I agree. I think the broad-brushing though is a product of the last two gens. of people with small attention spans being more interested in looking at soundbites and tiny screens, mindlessly reacting to something provocative rather then actually determining whether or not it's true. Thinking people would have lawmakers pass laws to regulate circuses and traveling acts, thus ensuring that the animals are cared for and ensuring no abusive practices are tolerated. Non thinking people, however, don't think. They cry at animals performing and think that if they're released the animals magicly poof to some bucolic wilderness or happy sanctuary, when in reality some are used in canned hunts or get chained up in a barn in someone's backyard zoo. That's if they can't find a zoo to take them or the sanctuary happens to be filled to capacity, because most people don't have the funds or facilities to keep them.

And the thing is with Asian elephants, Ringling is actually breeding them to keep them going. They are doing more towards keeping the species around then by sticking them in a sanctuary and rendering them essentially genetically dead, because God forbid any get born outside of some imagined wilderness paradise, which hasn't existed for the last 50 years. They always can re-wild them later. They can't rewild any if they are extinct.

What's sad too, is that the ex-Ringling employee has been alleged to have been paid to say the stuff he did. I can't remember who paid him, but I think it was some nutter animal activist group that had their tits in a twist over Ringling for some reason.

Originally Posted by plastroncafe

Maybe Ringling Brothers closing means other circuses who actually abuse their animals will close, but maybe it won't.

Yeah, it won't touch them. All it will do is inconvenience abusers for a while, until they can find a podunk host town that looks the other way. Lawbreakers won't care, while the big public guys get destroyed.