Live Animal Acts and Exhibits: Anguished ‘Entertainers’

Ivan, a 500-pound gorilla, spent more than 26 years on display in a concrete cell in a shopping mall in Tacoma, Washington. In addition to being gawked at by crowds and denied sunlight and fresh air, Ivan was deprived of mental stimulation and contact with his own species.(1) After years of protests by people who were appalled by his living conditions, Ivan was finally moved to a spacious home. For the first time, he was able to venture outside, smell flowers, and join a gorilla family. Unfortunately, the life stories of most captive animals on display do not end so favorably.

Captives of Cruelty
Animal acts and exhibits run a deplorable gamut. They include diving horses at theme parks, dancing chimpanzees, caged bears at an ice cream stand, bingo-playing chickens, parrots caged in hotel lobbies, cats forced to jump through flaming hoops in Key West, and giant turtles forced to give rides to children.

Animals used in these spectacles are often subjected to abuse in order to provide “entertainment” to patrons. Even under the best of circumstances and without forced performances, captivity can be hell for animals, who are meant to roam free. Kept in small, barren cages, with nothing to sleep on but concrete slabs, and imprisoned behind iron bars, captive animals often suffer from malnutrition, loneliness, deprivation of all normal pleasures and behaviors, loss of freedom and independence, lack of veterinary care, and filthy quarters. Attracting customers is their captors’ first priority, and the animals’ welfare is often the last.

Animals forced to perform are subjected to rigorous and abusive training methods to coerce them into doing stressful, confusing, uncomfortable, and even painful acts. Training methods can include beatings, the use of electric prods, food deprivation, and drugging. Teeth and claws are often surgically removed or impaired in some species, such as big cats and bears.

Confined to tiny cages and gawked at by crowds, captive animals endure constant stress. Many suffer from temperature extremes and irregular feeding and watering. Without exercise, they become listless, their immune systems weaken, and they become prone to sickness. Many resort to self-mutilation and other neurotic behaviors in reaction to stress or relentless boredom. Torn from their families and deprived of all dignity, every part of their lives is controlled by their handlers.

Animals Fight Back
It is not uncommon for frustrated captive animals to snap and rebel. In a widely publicized incident, Roy Horn of the Siegfried & Roy nightclub act was attacked by a tiger named Montecore during a Las Vegas performance. Horn was attacked while he was attempting to force Montecore to perform in front of an audience. Montecore bit Horn’s arm—prompting Horn to beat Montecore’s head with a microphone—and then lunged at his neck and dragged him off the stage “like a rag doll.”(2) Horn’s coworkers beat Montecore, who held onto Horn until he was blasted with a fire extinguisher. Horn sustained critical injuries, but the incident could have been even worse had Montecore chosen to jump off the stage and attack members of the audience.

Countless people have been seriously injured, many fatally, as a result of attacks by captive big cats, bears, elephants, and primates. Visit WildlifePimps.com for more details.

Current Regulations Are Ineffective
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) enforces the federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA), which sets minimum housing and maintenance standards for confined animals. Not all animals are afforded protection: Horses, birds, reptiles, fish, and other cold-blooded animals are specifically excluded from the AWA.

The USDA has about 70 inspectors who are responsible for 8,300 licensed facilities nationwide.(3,4)  In 2005, the USDA’s inspector general issued a scathing report that stated that animal welfare officials in the department’s Eastern region (which covers all licensees east of the Mississippi River) were “lax” in punishing zoos and other facilities where people or animals are endangered. The report detailed one case in which the government failed to act against a zoo that had a history of violations, even after a child was hurt by a jaguar. In another instance, inspectors did not charge an unlicensed exhibitor whose monkey bit two preschool students.(5)

What You Can Do
Never patronize any exhibit that includes animal acts. Instead, enjoy innovative acts such as Cirque du Soleil or the Pickle Family Circus, or enjoy animals without interference in their natural environments.

If a local mall, hotel, or other establishment features an animal act or exhibit, voice your concerns to the manager or promoter. Explain the facts about behind-the-scenes abuse and neglect, and explain the risk of injury to spectators. Have your friends and neighbors do the same, and make it clear that you will boycott the establishment until the exhibit is shut down and the animals are placed in a sanctuary or other humane environment.

Inspect the exhibit for violations of state and federal laws. Watch for signs of poor health, such as listlessness, sores, lameness, missing hair, or self-mutilation. Note sanitation, food and water availability, and cage size (cages must be large enough for the animals to make normal movements). Take photographs or video footage of the animals and their cages. If you see possible violations, try to get a sympathetic veterinarian to verify your findings. Then, contact your local humane officer or animal warden and the sector office of the USDA, which enforces the AWA. (Call the USDA at 301-734-7833 to find out the location and phone number of the sector office nearest you.) Insist that the animals be examined and that the conditions be relieved.

Organize demonstrations. Contact PETA for a supply of fliers and an “animal display ban” pack for tips on getting animal acts banned in your community. See PETA’s factsheets on zoos and traveling animal acts  for more information.

References
1) “A Gorilla Sulks in a Mall as His Future Is Debated,” The New York Times 17 Oct. 1993. 
2) Adam Goldman, “Magician in Critical Condition After Tiger Bite,” Associated Press, 4 Oct. 2003. 
3) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, “Compliance Inspections,” U.S. Department of Agriculture, Jun. 2005.
4) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, “Animal Care Report,” U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2004.
5) Libby Quaid, “Audit Says Animal Welfare Officials Lax,” Associated Press, 20 Oct. 2005.