Performing to Entertain

The use of animals in performances based on unnatural behaviour, for instance, parrots riding bicycles, elephants standing on their heads, chimpanzees smoking cigarettes, tigers jumping through hoops of fire and dolphins spinning hoops should be assigned to the history books, and not practiced in any capacity in the European Union. Such actions often pose a risk to the animal’s welfare: training methods (to encourage the animal to perform unnatural behaviour) can be abusive, involve food deprivation, or other methods of negative reinforcement; performance is usually in close proximity to people, can involve direct human contact, or set to loud music; and housing conditions between performances, or when transported to the location, are usually poor. These practices and poor living conditions can cause the animals to develop abnormal behaviour or cause injury, disease and early mortality.
 
Wild animals are exploited in performance in a variety of fields: in zoos and aquaria, marine parks, in travelling menageries and in circuses, on television, in film and in commercial advertising, in nightclubs and on the stage. All these forms of wild animal exploitation can have detrimental effects on the welfare, and sometimes survival of the animals concerned.
 
Performances and shows often fail to encompass any educational or species conservation element regarding the animals’ natural behaviours and habitat: as specified in EU zoo legislation (Directive 1999/22/EC). Furthermore, other than basic welfare law, national legislation fails to sufficiently protect animals used in training and performance.

 
“It is hard to be the king outside of the jungle” is a ADnimalsfree.org campaign created by ENDCAP member FAADA who campaign to end the use of wild animals in advertising.