Animals in circuses are ill-treated

Circuses do not treat animals well. Animals are forced to travel for hours in small cages where they have hardly any space to move. There are trained cruelly. Trainers make animals perform only through pain and beating. They also starve the animals and do not give them enough water.

All the natural habits of animals are denied to them in circuses. In circusses animals cannot move. The animals are caged in such small cages that they can hardly turn around in, and are chained for most of the day and night. They only exercise they get is during performences and training sesions.

In circuses animals are forced to do un-natural acts. Elephants are forced to stand on their head, chimpanzees have to ride bycicles, bears have to dance, tigers have to jump true flaming loops, elephant are forced to walk tail to trunk and female elephants have to mount each other. To make animals do this it will need extreme training, and that can mean lots of torture. Once the show is over animals are cruelly shoved back into cages or are chained. Then they are packed into trucks, and are taken to the next town.

It is discovered that trainers beat and starve the animals to make them perform tricks. Trainers keep the animals under control with electric prods and whips. A bear may have its nose broken or its paws burned to force it to stand on its hind legs. All this cruelty makes  animals mad. 

Here are some amazing facts of animal cruelty in circuses

Animals are confined in small cages barely larger then their own bodies.

It is rare animals receive proper veterinery care. Not one of India’s circuses has a vet traveling with it.

Often circuses give animals less water so that they don’t urinate when they are performing.

Diseases in circuses

Animals in circuses can have many dangerous diseases. Elephants often have tuberculosis. Often they are not treated. Often wounds are inflicted during beatings. Often circuses use soil to camuflage elephants’ wounds. And often the soil is full of germs, which means it can infect the wound.

In circuses animals also suffer from lameness and foood abscesses. It is common for an elephant to die in a circus. Elephant suffer from osteoporosis. This desease is caused due to the lack of excersise and no space to move around in.

Cruelty towards dancing bears in India



Dancing bear



Dancing bears don’t have a happy life. When they are four or five weeks old they are taken away from their mother. If the mother tries to protect her little babies then she is cruelly killed. Then they are taken to the Kalandar’s village. The Kalandars is a nomadic tribe. On the journey to the village of the Kalandar’s many of the baby sloth bears die because of starvation, shock and dehydration. The poor little bears who survive are sold to the Kalandars for 800 RS.

In the Kalandars village the infant bear is put under a basket. It is left without food, water or any contact of the outside world. Like this it spends its first few days. Then it is taken out and tied up to a post in the village where children torment the poor bear. Then a hot needle is inserted into the nuzzle of the bear, without anesthesia. Then a ring is attached to the piercing. This happens before the age of six months. Often a second piercing is done.

Before the cub has reached the age of one year their incisor and canine teeth are knocked out with a hammer. Because of this the bears can only eat soft food, and that causes digestive problems.

Then the bear is trained cruelly. The owner wants the bear to be scared of him. Between 60% or 70% of the poor little bear cubs die before they can be even trained. But infect the cubs who die are lucky. As the owner wants that the bears to be submissive he tortures them, beats them and starves them till they spirit is broken and the they become submissive.

How to train a sloth bear?

Hot coals are placed under their feet. This is to make the bear stand on its hind legs. Once standing the bear’s trainers hit each of the poor bear’s paws with a stick. To avoid that the bear will lift his hind paws in turn. The trainers of the bear tap the bear’s muzzle, so that the bear lifts its paws on its muzzle. Now it is a dancing bear.

The bear works for 6 hours a day and when special occasions are there, they work for 10 hours. The bear and owner travel for long distances on foot for 8 or 9 months a year.

When a bear is sick the owner usually consults the village elders instead of a vet.

Oh, I forgot to tell you one more earth shattering fact.




A sloth bear lives for 30 years in freedom, but in captivity they hardly ever live beyond the age of 8 years.

Once the bear is too old to dance or is sick  (many bears have the disease of tuberculosis) is often send to Pakistan for bear baiting fights. In these fights the bear is tied, then dogs are set on the bear. If the bear survives, when its wounds are fine it will again be in a fight. A bear usually only lasts three fights before it is ripped into pieces.



Bear baiting