Is was with disbelief and more than a bit of nostalgic sadness I read today's news.
Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus will complete its final tour and vanish this year after 146 years of being
The Greatest Show on Earth.
My grandchildren's generation will be the last ones to ever sit breathless in the velvety darkness under the Big Top, grape snow cone dripping through their fingers and balloon tied to their wrist, as the spotlight appears and they are welcomed by
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls and children of all ages..."
PETA and their ilk have spent the past few hours glad-handing, celebrating and patting one another on the back for bringing the show to its knees...and casting a victorious eye now toward Sea-World type attractions and Zoos.
Congratulations...you have succeeded in putting what amounts to a small village of people out of work. Over 500. Some who have literally grew up all their lives with this circus family...
But wait...there is more.
Retirement for the elephants is in Florida...where they will continue to be fed, bathed, worked with. The cows will be allowed to roam the huge facility plains. The bulls will be restricted to a small penned area. All of them will STILL be paddocked and ankle chained at night. (..this per an investigative article in the NY Times...)
The rest of the animals...lions and tigers and camels and bears and llamas and such...???
Well, let's just say the Elephants are the lucky ones, okay?
Re-homed can mean anything from shipped to various zoos or Big Cat Rescue Centers...to shipped to foreign circuses...who are not quite so animal friendly as Barnum and Bailey has been all these years... to euthanasia.
What???
You thought they were lovingly going to be released on the plains of Africa or the Jungles of Cambodia (in the case of the Tigers) while some one hummed Born Free and strummed a Vintage Martin.
Wow...you people really are a bunch of Special Snowflakes, aren't you????
These are animals who have lived some or all of their lives in the Circus. On a much larger scale than, say our dog or cat, they are PETS.
They depend on their handlers to eat, be sheltered from the elements, have social interaction.
(...and while we are on the subject of social interaction...do you think these animals haven't formed BONDS through the years with their trainers...their fellow animals...)
If you have a dog or cat (or whatever) does it have a bond with you??? Does it have a bond with the other pets in the house???
I rest my case.
I remember years ago when Animal Activists liberated cages and cages of ranch raised mink from their "cruel captivity"...it made the news simply because many of them were crushed on the highway running near the farm. A great deal more ended up in the scat (poop) of bobcats, coyotes, foxes, and various Owls and Raptors.
So much better...right?
I am sure I will not be the first or the last to make this observation...but PETA people, your hearts may be "in the right place" but your heads are firmly up your asses.
I hope Someone takes the time to follow up on what happens to the Animals and Peoples lives you tore apart today...and your group is stopped before the only way my grandchildren's children will ever be able to see these animals in in a book or on a screen. Or before some of these animals go extinct because you have managed to shut down their breeding programs.
Me...I am going to do whatever it takes this year to see that my Grandchildren have the opportunity to experience the magic of one more night at The Barnum and Bailey Circus (especially Aiden) before it is gone for good.
More anon...
Seriously lost my ZEN today...
Breathe.
