Circuses down, pangolins up
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus will go out
of business this May. That’s not soon enough, but it’s still great news for all
the animals involuntarily involved with the mis-named “greatest show on
earth.”
So “send out the clowns,” as one
news story had it. Ring down the curtain on the cruel and inhumane spectacle
that should have ended millennia ago in the Roman Colosseum.
“Entertainment”? It is to laugh. What’s entertaining about
deciding that animals are ours to tamper with and torture into performing for
us? . . . about tearing baby elephants
away from their mothers at a criminally early age, then sadistically “breaking”
them in spirit so they’ll perform? . . .
about compelling mature elephants to walk in circles holding each other’s
tails, wear headdresses and balance on stools or balls?
Coupled with traveling in boxcars often chained in place,
enduring severe weather conditions and being made to march through city streets
heralding the circus, that’s how it goes for a performing elephant. Does any of
it sound like everyday life in the forest, jungle or savanna?
And that’s just the elephants. Don’t forget the big cats
and other animals forced into wretched lives and unnatural behaviors, for our
amusement.
With the end of
Ringling Bros. — no longer able to make enough money, literally, on the
backs of innocent, abused animals — what will become of all those performing
animals? Will they finally find sanctuary: a chance to live more naturally and
at peace?
Ringling was only the biggest and worst circus to ruthlessly
exploit animals. There are still others out there, along with animal shows and
rides. Activists have much more work to do.
Did someone say “pangolins”? Oh, right – I did. My last post mentioned a
worldwide ban on trade of endangered pangolins, and I included an image of a
pangolin that made it look scaly, huge and prehistoric. Not to worry: “scaly”
is the only accurate word of those three. Covered with scales made of keratin (think
human hair and finger nails), the largest pangolins are comparable in size to a
medium-size dog – say, a hound.
Among the eight pangolin species (four each in Asia and
Africa), weights can range from about four to 70-some pounds. That’s it. These
“scaly anteaters” are mainly nocturnal and insectivorous, with large curved
claws and long sticky tongues that help them consume ants and termites. When
threatened, pangolins roll up in a ball resembling an artichoke.
That defensive position may deter a lion, but not a human
hunter or poacher – the reasons behind the animals’ endangered status. Demand
for pangolin meat and scales (used in medicine) caused the killing of more than
one million wild pangolins in the last decade, making them the world’s most
illegally trafficked mammal.
Which is where the Convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) came in last fall, moving pangolins
to its most-protected category. Now, widespread enforcement can make all the
difference. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/30/science/endangered-pangolins-trade-ban.html
(Next post: APLNJ
administers “the old one-two”! )
–Pat Summers