TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN
RE PROHIBITION TO KEEP WILD ANIMALS IN CIRCUSES
Samantha Scott BVSc MRCVS
(The following represents the author’s opinion
and does not necessarily reflect that of the veterinary profession
as a whole.)
The author is a veterinarian with thirteen years
clinical experience in all aspects of general practice. The ten
years have been spent in referral behaviour work and in completing
welfare audits on zoos and circuses in UK, EIRE and Canada for various
welfare organisations. She is currently Honorary Clinical Lecturer
in Behaviour at Glasgow University Veterinary School, Honorary Fellow
at Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, Edinburgh and runs
a veterinary referral clinic from both locations and in private
practice across Scotland.
CARNIVORES IN CIRCUSES
The outline below is specifically directed at the keeping of lions
in circuses, but may generally be applied to any carnivore or indeed
most mammals, whilst bearing in mind the species ethology. For solitary
species, such as most of the big cats, the psychological pressures
are greater still since they are forced to spend time in proximity
to animals that they would usually make every effort to avoid.
The difficulties in assessing the big cats in captivity are highlighted
when one considers the lion. Whether in zoos or circuses, the lion
is behaviourally the most sedentary of the cats. It is simple to
conclude from observing ocelots, servals, amur, leopards, lynx and
bobcats that these species do not do well in confinement - almost
every exhibit has at least one individual performing a stereotypic
behaviour. The bigger cats, the tigers the jaguar, the leopard and
the cheetah are also prone to showing disturbed behaviours, depending
on their management, their environment and their social structure.
The lion as a species tends to show fewer behavioural abnormalities
in captivity than the other felids, but the author has still observed
stereotypic behaviour in these cats when the management constraints
are severe.
Does one simply conclude, therefore, that these animals are more
adaptable to captivity? Or is it that they can tolerate a poorer
husbandry regime for longer before they start to display the outward
signs of mental suffering?
There are (and this is still debated) several stages in the progress
of mental suffering. They are not clearly delineated; they do not
all necessarily occur nor in stepwise fashion. It must be remembered
that the brain of the felid has many of the same neurotransmitters,
the same basic biochemistry and physiology as the human brain. There
are wide individual variations in the etiology, development, progress
and outward manifestation of mental disease/distress in humans;
there is no data to support the proposal that the same variation
does not occur in lions, felids generally or other sentient creatures.
The stages are:
Frustration – “boredom” }
} CONFLICT
Fear - prevention of flight/fight response }
transient conflict may lead to DISPLACEMENT ACTIVITY, eg pacing
before feeding
Frequent/permanent conflict may mean that the displacement activity
loses its original purpose (to reduce conflict) and original stimulus
OR behaviours such as self-mutilation, oral stereotypies, other
locomotor stereotypies may develop without first manifesting as
a displacement activity.
OR aggression to group members / attendants / public
OR chronic anxiety states
OR withdrawal, physically and/or mentally, progressing to a state
of learned helplessness or “ennui”.
If one removes an animal from its normal environment, its normal
social grouping, restricts its natural behaviours and the choices
it can make about its day-to-day life it would not be unreasonable
to suppose that this would impose some level of suffering, perhaps
physically, perhaps in mental stress, or both.
A lion, or a group of lions in a circus are so restricted in space
that they cannot perform many of their natural behaviours. In some
cases they cannot stretch or turn around in the beast wagons. Obviously
they cannot hunt, which is their main release of energy and most
tend to become lethargic and overweight.
They cannot choose their social groupings; in the wild this would
be determined by family groups and by age; the adolescent males
leaving the group when they are perceived to be a threat by the
male of the pride. Circuses do not keep their lions in “prides”
as such, but in convenient groupings to do with age and experience
and stage of training.
Any aggression within the group cannot be easily dissipated because
there is nowhere to escape, and no room to perform the normal behaviours,
which would divert aggressive confrontations. Although lions are
the most sociable of the cats and live in groups from two or three
to forty, the pride territories may be as large as 400sqkm, depending
on the region, prey numbers etc.
The stability of the pride depends upon the lionesses; in turn
their stability in part relies upon the fact that they are related
and will have grown up together. This is not the case in the circus.
Even if there were a small group of related females, one cannot
extrapolate from the wild situation and suggest that this would
be stable group; the presence of males, the birth and development
of cubs are all fundamental to the normal functioning of the pride.
And breeding of lions in and by circuses only produces surplus animals
who are either euthanased or passed on to “sanctuary”
situations whose conditions are often far from the ideal.
The proximity of the lions to loud machinery, to the public, to
human attendants, exposure to travel and transport stresses should
all be taken into account when considering the quality of life for
a circus lion.
One might argue that the animals can adapt to these stresses and
it may be true that some individuals appear to adapt better than
others. However, adaptation itself requires the considerable outlay
of considerable resources by the animal; whilst it is adapting to
one aspect of its life it cannot cope with such as infectious disease,
climatic changes or other stressors. It may suffer from sub clinical
or frank disease or experience the kinds of conflict that may go
on to manifest as mental disturbance.
Training methods are a matter of considerable controversy. Circus
and animal trainers maintain that training is achieved via a reward
only based system Opponents of circuses insist that cruelty is always
involved in training.
It is likely that, in most cases, a combination of instrumental
learning techniques (wait for the required behaviour to be performed
naturally and then reward it, linking it to a command signal) and
fear based aversive training is used. Many of the behaviours performed
are not natural and therefore will have to be “encouraged”
by one technique or another. The other fundamental point is that
unless these animals are afraid of their trainer they are likely
to attack. None of these animals are truly tamed.
If one watches lions performing in a circus they will almost invariably
be mouth breathing. Felids do not “pant” as easily as
canines and mouth breathing usually only occurs when they are very
hot and need to lose heat, or when they are stressed in another
way (fear, conflict, aggression, pain).
In summary: the author would recommend that wild
animals cannot be kept adequately in circuses. This is based on:
a. Severe space restriction: lions cannot perform natural behaviours.
b. Questions over training methods
c.Mental suffering imposed by a and b above and by all the stressors
involved in circus life : transport, climatic changes, noise and
air pollution exposure, proximity of public, requirement to perform.
d. Inability to provide adequate exercise facilities.
e. Inability to provide a stable social grouping.
f. Questions over surplus animals if breeding.
g.Questions over source of animals (zoos?/dealers?) if not breeding
PARROTS
The specific problems for parrots are:
1. Highly intelligent animals whose intelligence and requirement
for attention can be compared with that of a four year old child.
2. Parrots form monogamous pair bonds in the wild – in order
to get them to perform satisfactorily it is likely that the human
trainer will take the place in the parrot’s perception of
the partner. This then becomes problematic when the trainer cannot
be with the parrot all the time and when other humans are seen to
encroach upon the situation.
3. Parrots are highly destructive and need to be provided with
a wide range and constant supply of branches and the like to destroy.
This also carries implications for security.
4. Zoonoses such as Psittacosis are common.
5. parrots are extremely sensitive to environmental changes such
as air quality.
6. The result of failing to address adequately the physical and
psychological needs of parrots results in aggression (to each other
and to humans), self mutilation (in the form of feather plucking)
and emotional withdrawal
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Samantha Scott BVSc MRCVS
0044 1620 815615
GSM 07831 231 503
E-mail abg67@dial.pipex.com
2 Coates Cottages, Longniddry, East Lothian EH32 0PL Scotland
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