Viddler

The CIRCUS is NO FUN for the animals... Big Cat Rescue does
something called Operant Conditioning to teach our cats to do
things we need them to do for medical reasons such as lean against
the fence to get their shots or open their mouth so...

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The CIRCUS is NO FUN for the animals... Big Cat Rescue does
something called Operant Conditioning to teach our cats to do
things we need them to do for medical reasons such as lean against
the fence to get their shots or open their mouth so we can look at
their teeth.  We do this with rewards and the cats have fun
because they are smart and bored and love the attention.  We
never punish or withhold food to make them do something and the
cats only do it when they want to -- not on our schedule. But
because tigers and lions in circus acts must perform specific acts
at precise times and "the show must go on" positive reinforcement
is not the only method used by circus trainers or night club
magicians.  Often the cats are beaten starved and confined for
long periods of time in order to get them to cooperate with what
the trainers want.  And life on the road means that most of a
cat's life is spent in a circus wagon in the back of a semi-truck
or in a crowded stinking box car on a train or barge. The messages
the public gets from circus acts couldn't be worse.  These
acts either show man dominating one of nature's most magnificent
creatures which would never happen on an even playing field or
worse are promoted as illustrations of the "special bond" the
trainer has with his captive.  The latter just fuels the trade
in big cats as pets and that never ends well for the cat. Last but
not least circus acts are transient and often are a way of moving
big cats across state lines or even in and out of the
country.  Because the endangered species protection acts are
so poorly enforced this transience creates a legal cover for the
illegal importation and exportation of exotic cats.  If a
circus act leaves the U.S. with 10 tigers and comes back with 25
they can just say that the 15 additional tigers were born on the
road -- there is no way to prove it if they were taken from the
wild.  No U.S. government agency tracks the ages

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