Boycott the Circus, Save an Animal or Two

Hello everyone,

I am writing this on Thursday and Friday, as I will be away at the Ontario Nature Youth Council's Youth Leadership Retreat (ha! I love long names) for the weekend. On June 1 (my birthday), I'll be posting about how it went on my environment blog, http://www.hugatreetodayseriously.blogspot.com/.
Anyway, today I want to let you all know about why we need to avoid the circuses that use animals...

1. The use of animals for human entertainment is inherently wrong. Just as women were not made for men and black people weren't made for white people, animals were not made for humans. Keeping these animals locked up in cages is like keeping them as slaves.
2. The training tactics of circuses are also very cruel. To train elephants to be ridden by humans, for example, they have to be chained down in a bowing position (this is the position they must be in for people to climb onto their backs). I can't imagine why circus visitors would find it fun to see abused animals perform tricks for them.

Instead of the traditional animal circus, why not attend the Cirque du Soleil or a similar circus, which focuses on the amazing feats of human acrobats and gymnasts? I have heard that it is truly awe-inspiring.
For those of you who want to stop the circus cruelty in its tracks, you can start a miniature protest near the entrance to a circus. Hand out leaflets encouraging visitors to attend another attraction instead (ie. going to the movies (without animal actors!), swimming in a lake, seeing a non-animal circus, etc.). You might think that this is too much work, but all you really need to do is gather some friends who care and make the signs, educate yourselves, prepare some sort of handout and alternatives to the circus, then go do it! Some peta2 teens successfully did this: http://blog.peta2.com/2012/05/alexandra-craig-takes-on-ringling-bros.html.

http://denbeath.blogspot.ca/2009/04/facts-about-circus-cruelty.html