After 25 years of observing and documenting circuses, I know that there are no kind animal trainers.
- Pat Derby (former trainer and co-founder of the Performing Animal Welfare Society>

Cruelty is not Entertainment

Animals in circuses are beaten, chained, and denied all that is natural to them. A reporter who traveled with one circus remarked that the sound of a trainer's club repeatedly striking a chimpanzee could be heard outside the arena building, and the screams further than that.

What can you do? Please only go to circuses which don't feature animals. Write letters to the editor of newspapers and magazines to educate others about the cruelty involved in circuses.

Check out www.circuses.com for more information.

I have seen many calves injured or killed. For example, at Fort Worth a few years ago, 22 calves had broken legs.
- PRCA rodeo judge

Animals used in rodeos are physically provoked into displays of “wild” behavior. Electric prods, sharp sticks, caustic ointments, and other devices are used on them, and the flank or bucking strap is tightly cinched around their abdomen or made to pinch their groin and genitals.

In calf roping, young animals, running up to 27 miles per hour, often sustain severe bruising, broken bones, and internal bleeding; some have become paralyzed from spinal cord injuries. Calves are usually only used in one rodeo before they are destroyed because of their injuries.

Often, the animals' injuries are internal. Dr. C.G. Haber, a veterinarian who worked for 30 years as a meat inspector in slaughterhouses, saw scores of animals discarded from rodeos and sent to slaughter. Toughened as he was to animal suffering, the condition of animals from rodeos sickened him. He described them as "so extensively bruised that the only areas in which the skin was attached (to the flesh) were the head, neck, leg, and belly. ... I have seen animals," he said, "with six to eight ribs broken from the spine and at times, puncturing the lungs. I have seen as much as two to three gallons of free blood accumulated under the detached skin. Bullfights are merciful compared to rodeos. It's high time this cruel sport be outlawed in the United States."

Although rodeo cowboys voluntarily risk injury by participating in events, the animals they use have no such choice. In 1986, at the Calgary Stampede in Alberta, Canada, one of the biggest rodeos in North America, eight horses were killed or fatally injured during a chuck wagon race collision. Because speed is a factor in many rodeo events, the risk of accidents is high.

Bucking horses often develop back problems from the repeated poundings they endure. Because horses do not normally jump up and down, there is also the risk of leg injury when a tendon breaks down.

Rodeo association rules are not effective in preventing injuries and are not strictly enforced, nor are penalties severe enough to deter abusive treatment. For example, if a calf is injured during the contest, the only result is that the roper will not be allowed to rope another calf in that event on that day. If the roper drags the calf, he or she might be disqualified. There are no rules protecting animals during practice, and there are no objective observers or examinations required to determine if an animal is injured in an event.