What the experts have to say.

Zoocheck Canada is a national animals protection charity with a focus on captive wildlife. Since 1985, we have been conducting investigations and research on wild animals held in captivity and assessed the education programs of zoos and circuses.

I am writing to you because we have recently learned that you are considering legislation that could ban the use of wild animals in performances in your jurisdiction. We strongly support this sort of legislation in Canada and around the world.

Circuses continue to argue that animals used in performances are part of a conservation and education programs. Nothing could be further from the truth. Showing these animals in unnatural settings performing unnatural behaviours is actually a negative education message. It teaches children nothing about the natural behaviour or habitats of these animals, many of which are endangered in the wild. Rather, it shows only that animals can be trained to entertain people, but the methods used to train the animals and their day to day activities are kept hidden from the public.

Some circuses provide some very basic information about the animals they use in their performances. However, this superficial information cannot outweigh the visual message they are showing forcing these animals to perform silly tricks in an effort to entertain the public. The basic facts about these animals cannot be disseminated to the public at a circus because they would be admitting that they are keeping these highly intelligent animals in impoverished environments. For instance, elephants are highly social animals that travel over long distances and communicate with each other. Separating elephants from their young is one of the most extreme forms of cruelty and is common practice in the circus industry. In addition, most captive elephants suffer from arthritis and severe foot infections (the leading cause of death in captive elephants) and die prematurely. Primates have very complex social needs and are highly intelligent. The majority of their basic needs cannot be met in a captive setting. Big cats are hardwired to predate, when this very basic need is removed from them and they are kept in small enclosures they quickly develop stereotypic behaviours, a sign of boredom or psychological suffering.

There is no shortage of evidence to show that the training necessary to teach circus animals to perform tricks is brutal. It is simply not possible to train wild animals without using deprivation or by beating them into submission.

The breeding of circus animals is merely to ensure there is a never ending supply of animals to be brutally trained and forced to travel and entertain the public, even the zoo species survival plans have mechanism to return primates, big cats or elephants back to the wild. In fact only a handful of animals that have successfully been reintroduced to the wild, these include species like the California Condor, the Black Footed Ferret and some other small mammals. The problems facing animals commonly used in circuses are very complex and generally revolve around a lack of habitat. These issues may be mentioned by circuses but the public are attending the circus to be entertained not to learn about threats to wild animals, and studies have shown that very little factual information about wild animals is retained by visitors to the circus.

We strongly recommend that you enact legislation that will keep wild animals from being used in performances such as circuses.

Yours sincerely,

*Julie Woodyer*
*Campaigns Director*
*Zoocheck Canada** Inc.*

*2646 St. Clair Ave. East*
*Toronto**, **ON** **M4B 3M1*

*Campaigning for the protection of wild animals...*

*Visit Zoocheck's website **www.zoocheck.com*