[NA - Ringling Brother's Circus - Rant - NA]

NOW where am I going to see seals balancing beach balls on their noses?
 
The tree hungers never get it. All they see is animals in a cage or enclosed but they never stop to think that those animals in zoos and circus are usually damaged or wounded animal, abandoned at birth or other do that they would never make it in the wild. They have a wonderful life that otherwise would have ended as a meal for some other animal.
I kind of had a Nastalgia for the circus. My favorite "Murder She Wrote" episode was the circus one called"murder under the big top" .

Oh and I hope peta sink like the titanic. Bunch of losers.
 
Maybe we've learned something about animals in the last 150 years.
 
PPC1052 said:
But I have seen O, and Cavalia. We got special tickets to the latter that let us go back into the stables and see the horses up close. Believe me. The owners take great care of those (very expensive) horses.
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When we lived in Portland a few years ago, Cavalia set up its show tents right in front of our condo. Had it not been so close we probably wouldn't have bothered to go, but I'm glad we did. It was indeed a terrific show.

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deonb said:
Hunts Point?
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One of the most famous aquariums on the planet released one of the most invasive species ever into the Mediterranean and has been saying "nothing to see here, move along" about it for decades.

Their latest "science" is: "Well, not as much stuff died, as everyone thought would."

All so they could have some hearty plants in their pretty fish tanks that the fish wouldn't eat.
 
James_Dean said:
Actually RB has had great legal success fighting PETA/HSUS.

I think that the decline of the circus is a direct result of the interwebs and youtube and their effect on kids. I remember going to the circus when I was in grade school in the '80's. Where else was I going to see that stuff? "I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE THE LION!!". Now? If they can dream about seeing it they enter a search and boom - there it is.
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Yep, that's part of it. Although, I can tell you that seeing the elephants up close, on the floor, and from a low/close seat during the performance it's a whole 'nother thing to see them in person. You get a general sense of how big they are in pictures or video, but in person. Wow.

RB said attendance has been dropping for 10 years, but when the pulled the elephants the attendance plummeted.
 
As the father of a soon to be two year old, I was really looking forward to taking my son to the Circus, just as my parents first took me to see the show in the early 80s.

This is very sad, but perhaps inevitable. With the shortening attention span of America, the battles with Animal Rights groups, and the expense of transporting a city of people across the county by train, I can't imagine trying to keep the business of the circus afloat.

I'm the last person to condone mistreatment of animals, but having worked with animals professionally (including working with elephants), my experience has been that people who work with animals day in day out do so because they love animals and tend not to hurt them. Alternatively, folks like PETA tend to believe that any animal in captivity is being mistreated and will go to great lengths to distort facts and portray isolated cases of mistreatment as representative of the industry. The circus was an easy target.

Their campaign worked. Parents don't want to have to explain why people are protesting and stay away, causing attendance to plummet. Of course tastes change too, but getting rid of the elephants was the biggest signal of the inevitable end.
 
For some reason, I enjoy watching working animals. Dogs are most common - a retriever going after that duck, a dog herding livestock, a dog pulling a sled, and plenty of other examples. Horses are another - people ride them for pleasure, but in many places they are used as work animals. And when it comes to elephants, the circus might have been the only place left in this country where they were still used for heavy lifting. Yeah, they were also used for entertainment, and maybe that's why some people felt they were being exploited. I dunno.

I still remember the Simpson's episode where Krusty's chimp, Mr. Teeny, was was "rescued" and released back into the wild. He sat, surrounded by wild chimps, wearing his little hat and nervously smoking his cigarette.
 
dell30rb said:
If I want to see a circus with zoo animals I just head to the local wal-mart. Or the mall on Black Friday.
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Or you could go to a NASCAR race! I've seen some crazy shet at races, especially Talladega!
 
Brad Z said:
Alternatively, folks like PETA tend to believe that any animal in captivity is being mistreated and will go to great lengths to distort facts and portray isolated cases of mistreatment as representative of the industry. The circus was an easy target.

Their campaign worked. Parents don't want to have to explain why people are protesting and stay away, causing attendance to plummet. Of course tastes change too, but getting rid of the elephants was the biggest signal of the inevitable end.
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Well, once upon a time we weren't quite so PC. I'm pretty sure my dad would have said, "Because they're ignorant *******s, son." and mom would have given him a look, and that would have been both correct, and plenty of explanation.
 
denverpilot said:
Well, once upon a time we weren't quite so PC. I'm pretty sure my dad would have said, "Because they're ignorant *******s, son." and mom would have given him a look, and that would have been both correct, and plenty of explanation.
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Except the kids are the ones now saying they don't want to go because they "don't want to see animals get hurt". It was easier for parents to control the message back then. Internet, social media go around mom and dad.
 
I don't think it's PETA either.... and I hate that lying cult of nutjobs.

I think it's more along the lines of people's ideas of fun stuff to do on the weekend changing. Seems like the only people who would be interested in going to something like that are very young children and people looking for a nostalgic experience. Maybe I'm wrong, I'm not a big fan of live entertainment in general so my view may be skewed but I call it like I see it.
 
Brad Z said:
Except the kids are the ones now saying they don't want to go because they "don't want to see animals get hurt". It was easier for parents to control the message back then. Internet, social media go around mom and dad.
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I guess they do, if the parents don't control the kid's media consumption and/or teach the kids to think critically. I hear ya. But it pains me.

We need more Red Foreman style dads out there these days.
 
I was not that fond of either circuses or zoos as a kid, and that was a long time ago. On the other hand, I agreed to do a photo safari trip last year and I loved it. Yes, life can be brutal and short for animals in the wild, but it's interesting to see them interacting with each other and their environment in a natural setting.
 
denverpilot said:
I have my PETA t-shirt: People Eating Tasty Animals...

But was the death of a circus really a direct result of PETA or just nobody going? We went a number of years ago as a nostalgia thing since it always came through Denver around my birthday, but it just wasn't that interesting.

Animal trainers are amazing folk, and the PETA whiners really paid zero attention to how much animal trailers actually care for the animals (for the most part), but at the end of the day, it had to be insanely expensive to move the animals and performers around and do the shows.

About the only two "animal" events I have time for are the annual local rodeo and once every few years, the National Western Stockshow -- with maybe a trip up to the rodeo at Cheyenne Frontier Days thrown in occasionally.

The circus was pretty low on my list of "must see" things, and zoos are even lower. Once you've seen monkeys throwing poo at humans once, that's usually enough.
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If God hadn't wanted us to eat animals He wouldn't have made them taste so darn good.
 
PaulS said:
If God hadn't wanted us to eat animals He wouldn't have made them taste so darn good.
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The other saying goes: "...He wouldn't have made them out of meat."

When/where I grew up it was way more common to go to the county fair and rodeo than the circus.
 
Brad Z said:
Except the kids are the ones now saying they don't want to go because they "don't want to see animals get hurt". It was easier for parents to control the message back then. Internet, social media go around mom and dad.
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Don't forget the constant drum beat from their teachers.
 
Matthew said:
The other saying goes: "...He wouldn't have made them out of meat."

When/where I grew up it was way more common to go to the county fair and rodeo than the circus.
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Yep even though I haven't been to a circus in 45 years, I have been to several fairs and rodeos during that time. Of course a good airshow beats them all.
 
The first airshow I went to I was there two days looking at everything and talking to everyone. Second airshow same as the first, except I stayed two hours.

I probably went to every circus that came to town when I was a kid.

But the rodeo in Texas takes a second place only to FridayNightFootball. (which is one word in Texas)
 
SkyDog58 said:
Yep even though I haven't been to a circus in 45 years, I have been to several fairs and rodeos during that time. Of course a good airshow beats them all.
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I'm not too sure I've had the best of experiences at either.

I think the last full-blown rodeo I went to a girl, maybe 14?, was killed when her horse fell and slammed her into the fence. And the last airshow I attended a plane spun in, right in front of me.
 
Matthew said:
I'm not too sure I've had the best of experiences at either.

I think the last full-blown rodeo I went to a girl, maybe 14?, was killed when her horse fell and slammed her into the fence. And the last airshow I attended a plane spun in, right in front of me.
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Remind me to invite you to the next inauguration of any politician I don't like. Hahaha.

As for the morning topic of parents having to explain to the children who think circuses were in the business of hurting animals...

Maybe we need to go back to a time when children grew up knowing they were quite expendable... hahah...

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Just toss junior up there with the luggage. That'll be fine. Thanks. LOL.
 
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