Mommy will you take me to the circus? Flying acrobats, clowns, lion tamers, and animal abuse -- oh my! I've never wanted to take my son to the circus. Every time the circus comes to town, the subways and street corners are plastered with those exciting ads and I just ... I can't. I've heard too many reports of animal abuse.
Are the reports true? Ringling Brothers paid a $270,000 fine for violating the Animal Welfare Act (even though they didn't admit to abuse). And Mother Jones published an expose on the treatment of circus animals. It's not The New York Times, but as someone who never really liked the circus anyway, that's enough proof for me. So then why did I let my son go to the circus anyway?
Welcome to the many compromises of parenthood! I've never been drawn to the circus myself. Ever since that episode of Little House on the Prairie where a girl gets raped by a guy in a clown costume, I've been creeped out by clowns (WTF, that did NOT happen in the books, Michael Landon!). I don't like the music, the noise, the colors, the "food," really, I hate everything about the circus. I don't even like animal tricks. I don't need an expose on animal abuse to feel like there's just something undignified going on there.
Plus, there are so many alternatives. The parents in my neighborhood (Park Slope) have had several online debates about the circus and people always bring up the smaller, independent circus-type performances. They're much cooler, for one thing. And they don't involve animals. Hip and cruelty free, it's kind of a no-brainer.
Oh, but then along comes summer day camp. One year the day-camp my son attended planned a trip to the circus -- the big, maybe-animal-abusing one. I saw it there on the calendar. Opt out and miss a day of work? Or just -- tamp down my moral outrage and let him go? I'm afraid I went with passive acceptance. I let him go. He thought it was okay. But he never asked to go again.
Do you take your kids to the circus?
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Comments 37
We go every first week of November when the Ringling Brothers come to Pittsburgh. I love the Circus and so does my family.
And I mean every first week of November for 13 years and counting kind of every year
No, and my mother has asked about taking my daughter and I won't let her. If she wants to go see a circus, we go see Cirque du Soleil, where the circus entertainers are people who CHOOSE to be entertainers. I won't pay to support a company that abuses animals to make a buck, nor will I enable anyone else (by letting my daughter go with someone else) I want nothing to do with contributing to their company financially.
I don't push my views on anyone else - if I hear of a friend going, I don't jump down their throats about their choices. I don't usually comment on it at all. But when I'm asked (and I'm ALWAYS asked) why I don't want to go, I'm truthful.
I don't. I have seen unedited footage of how circus animals are treated when being trained, and I absolutely will not, under any circumstances, support it. My kids have never been, only asked for the first time last year, and I explained to them why we would not go - after they heard that the animals are beaten into compliance, they no longer wanted to attend. My older boy actually told a few of his friends who were talking about going to the circus, and those friends went home and told their parents they didn't want to go. The parents called me, not appreciative of the situation, which I understand - but my kid told the truth.