Animals in zoos and circuses

Animals in zoos and circuses

“There comes my master, with that terrible rod in his hands. He would probably hit me again with it. Again I have to go through that severe pain and suffering. God knows, what new stunt are they going to make me perform tonight? Certainly, every other animal here is worried about the same thing. No one is happy here. Looking around me, I find some other unfortunate fellows of mine, who go through the same pain and suffering of the harsh training every day. For the first time, when I was brought here, who knew life would be this tough here. I curse that day when I had to abandon my home, my sweet lovely home; where I could move freely, enjoy the beauty of nature, and interact with my friends. This place really does not belong to me. Everything here is so unnatural and strange. Here we are deprived of everything that gives meaning to our lives. They say they are human beings; the cream of creatures, they claim that they feel our pain and standby for our rights, but they never actually do so. They enjoy watching us doing unusual things on stage, but they never try to know how much do we suffer backstage”. Thought Lisa, who is an elephant and works at a celebrated circus.

There are a number of animals like Lisa, worldwide, who are forced to live harsh lives at zoos and circuses. Zoos and circuses are believed to be the best entertainment spots, people pay a huge amount to visit these places along with their children and enjoy watching diversified animals. But have we ever given it a thought that what cost do these poor animals have to pay in order to entertain us? 

First and foremost, they have to leave their natural habitat and live undesired, stressful, and completely unnatural lives; they are bred in captivity and spend most of their lives chained or caged. Furthermore, they suffer a lot during their transport, training, and performance; they are hauled from place to place cramped in filthy, poor ventilated vehicles and keep on traveling for days, due to which most die on the way. Moreover, the trainers treat them in a worst way, hitting them with metal rods to make them perform unusual activities such as standing on their heads, jumping through the burning wheel, etc.

It is, no doubt a miserable thing to exploit animals’ rights in such a way and those who visit such places, equally owe the blame, for encouraging and bolstering this misery. Therefore, we should not support these people in carrying out such ruthless acts rather, we should oppose them and protect the rights of animals. If we will not speak up for those hapless creatures, then who will raise their voice? luckily, there are many well-known organizations like PETA, which work for the rights of animals. So we should report to them any sort of activities involving the exploitation of animals’ rights. Besides this, we should not visit places like zoos and circuses, and request the government to shun those places permanently.

Shakil Ahmad