The animated 1941 film about a huge-eared elephant named Dumbo stole the hearts of thousands worldwide. Recently, a trailer was released for a live-action remake of Dumbo. Many people are excited for the movie to be released, but animal activists have some concerns. The director, Tim Burton, was challenged with the question of how he would manipulate a story that romanticized circuses: a place with a history of abusing animals.
However, Burton shows his position through the trailer which depicts an upset Dumbo with a clown face painted on him.
While there are laws in several Latin American countries have laws against use of animals in travelling circuses, the United States has no laws against circuses.
Circuses are still around today, like UniverSoul Circus. Circuses have been around since 1782, rising in popularity around late 1800s to early 1900s. However, with the popularity came questions like, “how are the animals being trained?” and “where are these large animals kept?”. Especially with intelligent animals species like elephants and monkeys, it was easy to spot the cruelty that was going on.
The animals are kept in cages when they are not performing and “11 months a year they travel over long distances in box cars with no climate control; sleeping, eating, and defecating in the same cage.” They are treated with extreme discipline like being whipped or shocked so they can be put out to perform.
There are ways to put a complete end to circuses in America. For example, if a circus is coming to a place near you, you can write letters to newspaper editors urging them to keep advertisements and news out of the papers. You can also spend time educating yourself on the horrors of circuses by reading about them on website or in books like The One and Only Ivan, which tells the story of a gorilla caught in the circus world. There are also petitions that you can sign to prevent the spread of circuses such as this one.
However, even without implementation of federal laws, we’ve come so far as to shut down America’s biggest and longest running circus, the Ringling Bros. Therefore, if we were able to get rid of the most popular circus, we will be able to take down any other animal-harming circus!
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