The Knight Life by Keith Knight for February 28, 2013

Okay they seem to be making fun of Ringling Bros. Circus so let me just say that I have met and worked with some great people at Ringling Bros. and they DO NOT mistreat their animals. Those animals travel in climate controlled trailers and eat better food than I do! Ringling Bros. has done more for Bengal Tiger and Asian Elephant conservation than any other group. They do this not only from a moralistic stance but also because it’s just good business. If the animals look sick and hungry, they make the show look bad and people won’t come. Also, animal cruelty to a large animal that you work with on a daily basis is dangerous. An elephant that you abuse WILL KILL YOU. A tiger that you abuse WILL KILL YOU. Also animals perform better when they are happy and healthy. They view at as a game or their daily routine.

My wife worked, briefly, with them as well. Elephants will only breed in captivity if they feel very secure, very well taken care of, and they had several healthy infants. The circus May have issues, but they are not that black and white. Love you, dude, but I think you’re off here.

So according to the poster above, if we put a human in a cage (climate controlled), feed him well and made him perform acts, then it should be perfectly o.k?!! oh and we give a lot of the money to charity, its cool then right?!!

I remember talking to an elephant trainer for Ringling Bros after he cancelled a show because the elephant looked depressed (later turned out the elephant was depressed because she hadn’t put on a show for a couple of weeks due to travel and bad weather, after a performance the next day she was back to her cheery self). He said that for every circus that treated their animals well there were two others that didn’t, thus the bad reputation applied to all circuses.

And keep in mind that elephants like performing tricks.