There are more than 30 countries that either have a full or partial ban on animal based circuses.  In the United States alone, there are 49 partial or full bans on circus animals in municipalities among 22 states.  Ringling Brothers and and Barnum Bailey Circuses use some of the worst training practices with elephants ever documented.  Elephants have a very similar life cycle to humans and they care for their young much like we do.  These captive elephants are forced to breed as young as eight years old, this is similar to breeding an eight year old child.  After the mother gives birth, tied by her legs the entire time, the babies are taken immediately; which causes the mother severe duress.  Ringling Brothers chains the mother by all four legs to take the baby away so that the mother elephant so she won't harm the trainers.  Even before being weaned, these baby elephants are put in a separate area from their mothers and then chained up for up to 23 hours per day.  In the wild elephants often nurse their babies until five years of age, then the correction process for these baby elephants starts where they are tied up and beaten repeatedly to break their spirit.  This training is so brutal, that Ringling Brothers won't allow their public relations department film this process. 

Circus animals do not willingly perform tricks.  The only reason circus animals perform is because they are terrified of what will happen to them if they don't.  Watching wild animals perform unnatural tricks outside of their natural habitats doesn't teach people anything about animals in the wild.  By displaying bears as tricycle riding fools and dressing elephants in tutus, circuses present animals as creatures whose purpose is to amuse us. 

Ongoing travel, means that circus animals are confined to box cars, trailers, or trucks for days at a time, and extremely hot and cold weather often without access to basic necessities such as food, water, and veterinary care.  Elephants, primates, big cats, and bears are confined to cramped, filthy cages in which they eat, drink, sleep, defecate, and urinate all in the same place.  The climate circus animals encounter during their exhaustive travels are often very different from their natural habitats.  The majority of circus elephants are captured in the wild, these wild elephants walk up to as many as 40 miles a day while in their natural surroundings.  Once captured, they are chained for one place for up to 23 hours per day.  Ringling Brothers own documents state that on average, elephants are chained up more than 26 hours straight, and sometimes continue to be chained for as many as 60 to 100 hours.  When these animals arrive at their next destination, instead of being let off the roadway car immediately after arriving at the arena, they are sometimes forced to remain inside for hours, despite extreme temperatures.

Instead of hosting Ringling Brothers Circus, we ask that you consider an animal free circus such as:  Cirque du Soleil, Circus Smirkus, New Shanghai Circus, or Circus Millennia, to name a few.