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Stacey Fee
Tami Brock
English 101
24 March 2015
Savage or Exhilarating Entertainment?
Pat Derby, a former circus animal trainer, famously said: “After 25 years of observing
and documenting circuses, I know there are no kind animal trainers” (Circuses). The word
“circus” brings to mind vivid images of the trapeze with amazing acrobats, comedic clowns,
elastic contortionists, etc… Fact is: professional entertainers perform out of free will, though once
we observe the wildlife part of the show, we begin to notice that they do not choose the show life;
but are kept in captivity and forced to act out the way they are brutally trained. Circuses who use
exotic animals belligerently try to persuade the public eye that these circus-animal-industries are
safe, fun, educational and family friendly; but this couldn’t be farther from the truth. For example,
did Dumbo and his mother have fun at the circus? Ringmasters commanding tigers to jump
through flaming hoops; elephants balancing upon each other and/or smaller objects; attractive
women riding exotic animals such as zebras; are all feats seen as spectacular like in the Disney
movie, but are they really? Circuses appear as fun and stimulating, but in reality they are
incredibly sadistic and inhumane. Disney done a wonderful job at displaying this gently to the
public using their famous movie: Dumbo.
Dumbo is a great example of what actually happens in the circus, but this is only
emphasized in the movie so much. Even though many felt emotional towards the film, the fact
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that it has become reality induced an even larger emotional impact on society. People don’t
always grasp what negative effects circuses have not only on the animals, but on the entire
world’s food-chain and ecosystem, as well as human’s daily lives. So I don’t have to talk about
every animal within the circus, I want to focus on the two most popular that are forced into
entertainment and how the world will be affected by their extinction: the elephants and tigers.
To begin, a new study published in the May 2013 issue of Forest Ecology and
Management found that more than a dozen elephant-dependent tree species suffered catastrophic
population declines in new plant growths after forest elephants were nearly extirpated from their
ecosystems. The fruit-bearing trees all rely on forest elephants as their primary means of seed
distribution, a process known as megafaunal dispersal syndrome (which is when plants get large
animals to move sizable seeds around for them) (Beaune). Elephants, with their massive
appetites, play two key roles in megafaunal dispersal syndrome of fruit trees. Firstly, forest
elephants roam over large swaths of land, spreading the seeds far and wide via their dung.
Secondly, past research has shown that seeds that have been softened by an elephant’s stomach
acids tend to germinate at a much faster rate than seeds that have not. This dual relationship
allows fruit trees with no other dispersal partners to ensure reproduction. These trees are
important because many of them have long been used for traditional medicine for humans and
have also been used as a food source to multiple species of animal such as bats, birds, insects and
other mammals. To put it simple; if elephants vanish, several species of plants and animals will
then co-extinct.
Tigers are at the top of the food-chain in all of the ecosystems it lives in. As such, it
keeps populations of deer, wild boar, sambar and gaur, etc… in check. Without the tiger to
control them, these prey species would expand. The excessive population would then completely
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ravage its food source – vegetation. If the vegetation in the jungles were to also be devastated,
then smaller animals and insects could not survive there; these factors could easily cause a
possible co-extinction in other animals just as with elephants. If the insects moved to the crops in
farmlands, then vital food sources could be lost, impacting human populations and economies. If
plants can no longer grow in the jungle, the soil will become infertile and eventually the jungle –
and all that depend on it – will fade away. This could obviously have negative impacts on human
welfare and economic development as well. Communities in Asia and other regions in the world
also depend on the same clean water, clean air, natural flood controls and other forest resources
that tigers need and are provided with. Without the protection for tigers, these ecological services
are also at risk for some of these communities.
Elephants, tigers, lions, (and other big cats,) bears, primates, exotic reptiles, horses,
