You've gotta love the circus! The clowns, the cotton candy, the elephants! The elephants...
They don't like being chained up. They don't like being whipped, forced to do things that are both unnatural and uncomfortable for them. The sounds of excited crowds, rather then exhilerate them, terrify them.
Yet being onstage is better then what happens backstage.
There is countless footage, countless evidence, of elephants being sworn at, tazered, even cut, during brutal training. They aren't gotten to dance for the crowd by kind, caring words. They do it out of terror, because they are forced to.
Even when they aren't training, they are kept in tiny, unclean cages or stables. In Winter, their conditions are not changed. Nobody cares that they are freezing. In Summer, they nearly boil.
Circus animals are snatched from the wild, with no concern for their health or wellbeing. They are then forced through many brutal training sessions, where they aren't praised for even mustering up the courage to attempt something as unnatural as jumping through a ring of fire, they are punished for not doing it well enough.



The life of a circus animal isn't one that is thrilling, exciting, living for the crowds. It's one of mistreatment and cruelty. It's one of pain and terror.