Russil Durrant: Time to free animals from circus

COMMENT

"Church ain't shucks to a circus," noted Tom Sawyer in Mark Twain's 19th-century classic. The dazzling aerial display of trapeze artists, the slapstick humour of clowns and the thrill and roar of lions have been a part of our collective imagination since the days of imperial Rome.

Circuses continue to entertain audiences around the world. However, a growing number of countries, including Ireland, Sweden and Canada, have decided there is no place for exotic animals in the modern circus, and have regulated accordingly.

New Zealand has an opportunity to follow suit with the imminent publication of a new code of welfare for circus animals by the National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee. But advance copies of the code indicate it is going to be business as usual for circus animals here, with no major law changes in the offing.

Should we follow international opinion and close our doors to circuses with exotic animals, or do such circuses still have a place in the modern world?

The cast of exotic animals in circuses typically includes elephants, lions, tigers and monkeys, although it might extend to bears, camels and even hippopotamuses. New Zealand has one travelling circus with exotic animals - the Three Ring American Circus (formerly the Whirling Brothers Circus), which has a lone African elephant called Jumbo, three lions and four monkeys, dogs, ponies and donkeys.

The major concern of animal welfare advocates is that the social, behavioural and psychological needs of animals can rarely, if ever, be met in a circus environment characterised by a gruelling schedule of travel, training and performance.

African elephants in the wild, for instance, may roam up to 5000 sq km. They will typically spend 20 hours a day foraging for food, as well as bathing, wallowing, grooming and other social behaviour.

In a circus environment, in between performances elephants will spend their lives shunted about in travelling boxes, tethered by chains or kept in small, electrified pens. For some, such as Jumbo, the existence is also solitary, devoid of elephant company.

Confinement in a circus means that animals are unable to display anything like their full repertoire of natural behaviour. This can result in the development of behavioural "stereotypes' - repetitive sequences of movements with no obvious function, such as rocking, head-bobbing and pacing.

Although there is some disagreement among behavioural scientists about why animals engage in these stereotypes, it is widely agreed they are a sign of distress and poor welfare.

Such stereotypes are common among some circus animals. Research at the Texas A & M University revealed that circus elephants, when chained, spent up to half their time performing behavioural stereotypes. These results are in line with a study of circus animals by the RSPCA in Britain, which found that almost a third of the animals' time was occupied with abnormal behaviour.

Welfare concerns are, of course, part of any attempt to keep wild animals in captivity. But such concerns are magnified in circuses, which are constantly on the move, are rarely well-resourced and subject animals to the constant stress of travel, training and performance. Moreover, whereas zoos can plausibly claim to play a role in conservation and education, circuses serve no such function.

Far from teaching children about the evolution and ecology of animals, circuses offer an anachronistic vision in which the will of animals is bent to the demands of their human owners. And all for the sole purpose of entertainment.

The draft animal welfare code for circuses recognises many of these concerns. Indeed, there are "minimum standards" relating to such issues as housing, transport and training. But these fail to address fundamental welfare issues.

For instance, although the requirements for elephants specify that exercise areas (a woefully inadequate minimum of 400 to 600 sq m for one to two elephants) be available for six hours a day, this is not required "when dismantling the circus or during transport".

As circuses are constantly on the move, these requirements do little or nothing to address the social and behavioural needs of the animals.

Indeed, the new code appears to contradict the 1999 Animal Welfare Act, which stipulates that animals must have "the opportunity to display normal patterns of behaviour". It is not clear how this is to be realised for Jumbo and the other exotic circus animals in New Zealand.

The code not only offers a stamp of approval for the Three Ring American Circus for up to the next 10 years but also opens the door for new circuses with exotic animals to make their way here.

The fate of circus animals is, however, yet to be sealed. After a six-week public consultation period, submissions will be reviewed by the animal welfare advisory committee. Recommendations are then made to the Minister of Agriculture, who has the sole power to issue the code.

There is still time to recognise that the welfare of exotic animals in circuses is inevitably compromised, despite the best intentions of circus owners. The only way the code can realistically improve animal welfare is to echo legislation passed by more than 15 countries and 300 local councils prohibiting the use of exotic animals in circuses.

Given that we have only one circus with exotic animals, this legislation would not be difficult to implement. The successful shifting of circus chimpanzees Buddy and Sonny to a primate sanctuary in Africa paves the way for the rehabilitation of the remaining circus animals.

Circuses still have a place in our lives but they need not contain exotic animals. Forcing animals to engage in dangerous and unnatural behaviour is neither an acceptable form of entertainment nor the best way to educate our children about the natural world.

The startling success of Cirque du Soleil and Circus Oz is testimony to the magic that circuses can offer through the art and athleticism of human performance alone.

Worldwide, animal welfare groups, veterinary associations and behavioural scientists oppose the use of exotic animals in circuses. It is time for New Zealand to face up to its obligations under the Animal Welfare Act and implement legislation to ban the practice.

* Dr Russil Durrant is a behavioural scientist in Waikato University's department of psychology.