To want to see the return of elephants to The Great British circus?

[salsmum]

When I was younger I loved to see the animals in the circus, my favourite being the Elephants. My son has worked for a Circus and we went along to see The Great British Circus and we got chatting to one of the Lion tamers who spoke with great love and compassion about his lions but said its a shame that he cannot work with them in U.K. because of the Animals rights activists who pickett the circuses. 3 of his family dogs were poisoned by some of the picketts and he was almost crying when he said how much he missed them [the dogs].
I love animals and I know there are some bad circuses out there but really know that these workers look after their animals and just wondered if MNs would still go to a circus if the Elephants return just to see these beautiful animals?

I remember reading about some animal rights activists that went to protest against fox hunting and they started attacking the horses to get to the hunters.

OP - YABU to want to see Elephants caged up and 'performing' in a circus just for your own ammusment. Why don't we cage you up and make you dance and perform, see how you like it!

yabu

but I don't hate some zoos as much as the others - Whipsnade and London Zoo do masses for conservation and the plain fact of the matter is that people are more likely to want to conserve animals if they've seen them in a zoo

So hideous though it is I am happy that people sponsor animals through wwf or whatever even if they've only done that because a zoo has pushed it on them when they've gone round.

The zoos do the best they can to make the habitats as 'natural' as possible.

And a lot of the animals come through twattish rich humans acquiring them and then the animals being too easy round humans to go back in the wild.

And they are trying to save some animals by investigating the diseases that plague them (mostly caused by man)

And there would be no Giant Panda's if we didn't persuade them to fuck and if westerners didn't think 'aw...fluffy-wuffy bears, how can they cut their penis's off for medicine'

Although there is an argument to let them die out which I don't agree with

yabu. And I'm afraid I had little sympathy with the individual who had his arm mauled by the circus tiger some years back. they are wild animals and are not there for entertainment.

Without zoos however, and endangered species breeding programmes, there are very real risks of many breeds dying out, so there are valid reasons for zoos to exist imo.

stayoutofthatlight - sounds like an exaggeration to me. Anyone on foot is in danger from anxious or frightened horses, not the other way round! I've seen actual footage (on the news) of hunters using their whips on sabs.

StayOutOfTheLight - I know quite a few hunt saboteurs, and I know they would never attack horses. Most of the time they don't even get that near the hunters, and are more likely to be attacked by them than the other way round. Don't believe everything you read.

yabu

naughty

stayoutofthelight - if you've ever been near a hunt and hunt sabs, you'd realise how unlikely that story is to be true. the sabs are too busy protecting themselves from attack by teh hunt supporters, while trying to distract the hounds.

I have never been to a circus in my life, and certainly wouldnt go to see animals "performing". No sympathy here for the OP.

bet most of you would go fucking hos riding though.

I went to a Bobby Roberts circus when dd was very little without realising that there would be animals there, I did not think it was legal. I though the animals looked very unhappy, we left early.

And I have never ridden a hos!

pmsl as riding a ho!

Blackpool circus only removed its animals because it was made to.

I went to the circus once and left when the elephants came on-it was so sad to see them doing tricks.

No I dont mutt I was just respinding to someone praising Blackpool circus.

Sorry, am not with it! I may go back to bed.

Dp's father is a master of hounds, and he and Dp have been attacked by sabs a few times before, It didn't happen very often to be fair though.

Master of foxhounds I should really say.

I wonder if Blackpool tower still has it's turtles? I loved to see them, they were so beautiful but I felt sorry for them too. I hope they've gone.

I would be less concerned about elephants (in theory anyway) than lions, as elephants have worked besides humans for a very very long time in their native habitats, whereas Lions should never be trapped and I would wonder about the training methods. However I am very glad that circuses no longer have animals, as their record on looking after them well was appalling so it's a moot point. Thinking about it, I wonder whether the elephants used in Asia are domesticated (ie bred from other elephants kept for work) or captured from the wild? Just thinking that most domesticated animals (thinking dogs, cats, horses etc) have lives very intertwined with humans now after thousands of years together.

that's a good point nooka. Where on earth did the circus elephants come from? Last time I checked my local pet shop didn't sell them, I can't imagine a zoo selling them off.

On the subject of animal cruelty has anyone else seen the poor whale shark that is being kept at the atlantis aquarium in dubai news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7678780.stm