LETTER: End cruelty to circus animals

Early in February thoughts turn to the soon-to-arrive spring season bringing with it daffodils, crocuses, blooming forsythia, lilacs and more. The joyful renewal of fresh life waits after a long, cold winter.

Sadly, springtime in Vineland also means the return of our annual circus act. You know the one where tigers, elephants and other wild animals are shackled in cages every day of their entire lives, 18 hours a day, taken out only to parade around for us, then put back into their cages to be hauled off to the next town.

Each day is an endless repeat of the day before, new day, same trick. That’s only a tiny portion of the suffering and horrific abuse in the life of circus animals, all in the name of showbiz. But it’s business as usual for circus owners.

LETTER: Hope for circus without elephants

Before you consider taking your family to the circus this year, pause a moment to log on to one or more of the Internet sites featuring circus animal abuse. What you will see and hear is disturbingly graphic abuse and profane language.

“Hurt them. ... Make them scream. ... When you hear that screaming, then you know you’ve got their attention.” If you can stomach it, there’s much more heinous behind-the-scenes cruelty inflicted by so-called trainers to be seen and heard. It’s not for the faint of heart and certainly not for a child to ever witness.

See for yourself, for instance, how an adult elephant is much more difficult to beat into submission than a baby elephant. The adult will assert itself and will rebel against being made to stand on its head for you. The longer it takes the elephant to surrender, the greater the molestation.

By comparison, baby elephants submit to the pain inflicted upon them more readily than their adult counterparts. Young animals are easier to manipulate. And there is no regard or concern to their welfare. An elephant is intelligent enough to know what kindness is. If the tables were turned, an elephant would be far more humane to humans than humans are to them.

All circuses should stop abusing animals

We certainly love our house pets. Many dog owners train their pets to sit and stay. Cat owners try to teach their pets not to jump up onto the table. Poking a sharp metal prod into our animal’s body is not likely part of our training process. But that is an integral part of the process to make circus elephants do the ludicrous tricks we pay dearly to see performed.

If your child comes home from school in a couple of months with a “free admission to the circus” ticket and you decide to use it, count how much you spent at the end of the day. Even the cheap seats aren’t cheap. There’s nothing “free” about a circus. It’s bogus. It’s a scam. And we’re not talking about a coupon for a free water ice on the first day of spring. We are talking about exploitation, cruelty and human’s inhumanity to God’s creations.

The violence to circus animals has gone on much longer than I’ve been alive and is an insult to humanity. What can we do? We can continue to turn a blind eye and deny the merciless truth or we can refuse to be part of the brutality.

American poet Ralph Waldo Emerson stated “to have a redeemed social condition is to have a successful life.” We’re long overdue in redeeming ourselves to this condition.

SPCA column: Nothing entertaining about animals in captivity

Ending its 145 year-old tradition, Ringling Bros. Circus announced recently the phasing out of the pachyderms lumbering trunk-to-tail routine and all other elephant acts. Maybe the owners saw the light.

I only hope and pray that at some point before the end of my life, we will look back and ask, “Can you believe we ever kept those magnificent creatures in cages?”

Adrienne Possenti

Vineland