Animal group urges circus boycott (From Watford Observer)

I thought there were only African elephants and Indian elephants. German elephants are new to me! Did Adolf Hitler breed them as a secret weapon when he knew he was losing the war?

Lucky it's not an Israeli circus, then all the other left-wing nutjobs would be in on the act.

All these people who complain - i bet you not even been to this circus!
If you actually went to it you will see the animals are well looked after and in in good care!!!
I love animals and care alot about the welfare, If i didnt like the way they are kept i wouldnt support it, but animal rights group take things totally overboard!

Oh well,thats ok then,Watford-Chick has spoken.
How the fcuk do you know what goes on with the animals for the 23 hours of the day,that they are not performing?Or is it a case that when the circus is in town,its all over to WC's(your initials,i prefer Dr Babsie).You state things on here and the way you say then implies that you are always convinced your right and that WE all follow your lead......your mad girl,bonkers.How can keeping an elephant(largest land mammal on earth)in a cage and transport it up and down the country,be treating it well?How come lion tamers have a whip?or is your old fella's the same and gives you the odd crack of leather,therefore you find it fine and acceptable.How come the elephant trainer has a spiked rod for the elephants?or like i say,thats normal to you.Your just thick ,without a shred of common sense,Oh and a degree......

The question of illiteracy of posters apart (and I mean people who appear to have no comprehension of English grammar, capital letters, spelling and punctuation), surely the issue here is whether the animals are actually physically suffering or are being ill-treated.

If this is believed to be the case, then the RSPCA should be asked to investigate and, if offences are proved, they would presumably have the power to close the circus down.

That animals are being made to perform tricks that some people will find undignified and inappropriate does not in itself seem to me sufficient reason. Has anyone ever shown that elephants are emotionally or psychologically damaged by, say, being made to play football or stand on one leg? Since elephants cannot speak or communicate in human terms, it is difficult for us to know or to ask them! I wonder what is the difference between an elephant performing stunts in a circus and being made to haul logs or carry big game hunters, which is what they are used for in India and Africa? Which animal is the better treated, I wonder? This is a rhetorical question, since I don't pretend to know the answer.

Whilst I hold no brief for animal abuse, it does appear to me that the animal rights lobby are naive in the extreme in that they tend to attribute to animals human characteristics that they simply do not possess. When an animal rights activist tells us he has had a "conversation" with an elephant or tiger and the animal has expressed a desire not to be made to perform circus tricks, then perhaps we will be sympathetic. Until then it seems to me an impossible question to solve.

The animal rights lobby, in their cuddly-wuddly, touchy feely naivety, constantly ignore the plain and unchallengable fact that the biggest threat to animals are not humans but other animals! Animals are predators and prey on one another. Dogs chase and kill cats, cats chase and kill mice, lions and tigers in the wild hunt and kill weaker animals, and so on. That is nature and no amount of sentimental poppycock will change it.

Roy Stockdill - your arguments re "when an animal rights activist tells us he has had a "conversation" with an elephant or tiger and the animal has expressed a desire not to be made to perform circus tricks, then perhaps we will be sympathetic. Until then it seems to me an impossible question to solve."

This question is not impossible to solve at all - What circus trainer can claim to have had a conversation with an elephant who told him that it wanted to perform and be trucked all over the country, kept in chains and proded or beaten with a painful metal spiked hook when it didn't understand what it was supposed to do because it can't speak "human"? Umm... guess even without talking to an elephant, I'd be pretty certain it wouldn't want to be treated that way.