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Potentially sensitive content.

Warning: circus images.

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A young elephant tied up and restrained by ropes on the ground surrounded by trainers.

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Elephant legs tied with heavy metal chains at the back of a vehicle.

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A trainer holding a threatening bullhook facing an animal.

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A trainer using a pointed hook (ankush) on the back of a lying elephant.

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A trainer striking an elephant with a stick near a wooden structure.

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A shirtless trainer surrounded by multiple elephants in the enclosure.

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Young bears chained by the neck against a brick wall.

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Close-up of a young bear suspended by a chain around its neck, mouth open in pain or distress.

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Warning: circus images.

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A person sitting facing a small monkey in an arena, holding a stick.

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Close-up of a person touching or grabbing the head of a small monkey.

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A monkey kept inside a cramped metal cage, holding onto the bars.

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Bears locked inside dark metal cages.

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Cats or small felines locked in small stacked wooden cages.

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Circus

Training and Acts

Animals used in circuses around the world (such as in North America, Europe, and many developing countries) spend their lives isolated in small, barren wire cages, without normal exercise or socialization with peers. They are transported from town to town in un-air-conditioned truck trailers or narrow railcars, and remain chained or confined for up to 95% of their lives.

1. Specific Treatment of Certain Animals

Elephants: Often captured as wild babies and torn from their mothers, they endure "phajaan" (the spirit-breaking method) in Asia or training through isolation and terror in the West. To control them, trainers use an ankus (or bullhook)—a sharp metal hook forcefully driven into the most sensitive areas of their skin (behind the ears, around the trunk, and on the legs). Shackled by their limbs for days, they develop severe arthritis due to hard concrete floors and repetitive movements.
Big Cats (lions, tigers, cougars): Crammed into transport cages where they can barely turn around, they spend years in the relative darkness of truck lockers between performances. To force them to jump through rings of fire or obey, trainers use whips, iron bars with points, and regular electric shocks, exploiting their panicky fear of fire and pain.
Great Apes (chimpanzees, orangutans): Prematurely separated from their mothers, they are dressed in ridiculous human clothing, forced to walk upright (which destroys their spine), and locked in individual metal cages that deprive them of all visual or tactile contact with their social group, causing extreme psychological distress.

2. Psychological Consequences and Neurotic Behaviors

No wild animal thrives in a circus. Captivity and deprivation generate chronic suffering that translates into profound mental disorders known as stereotypies. For example:

Felines pace in endless circles within their tiny prison or bite their own tails and paws in self-mutilation.
Elephants sway continuously from left to right or bob their heads frantically to try and soothe their anxiety.
Monkeys pull out their hair, self-mutilate their skin, or sway obsessively.
Giraffes frantically lick cold walls and metal bars, leading to fatal dental wear and severe digestive disorders.

3. The Reality of Training Through Fear

Animals do not perform complex, unnatural tricks (such as riding bicycles, walking on tightropes, or leaping into space) out of a love for performance or for a food reward, but solely out of terror of punishment. Physical domination and pain are an integral part of their daily conditioning. They are beaten, whipped, starved, and subjected to electric shocks so that the fear of humans overrides their survival instinct, forcing them to perform absurd acts amid the blinding lights and deafening noise of the grandstands.