Animals Used for Sport and in Entertainment

Whether you’re talking about horse and dog racing, animals in circuses and zoos, marine mammals in aquariums and aquatic shows, dancing bears, bull fights, or hunting for sport, in each and every case an animal is subjected to a life of confinement and deprivation of everything natural to his/her species; a lifetime in cages or chains, cruel training practices using domination, fear, and subjugation to force him/her to perform and in the case of hunting, death, simply for existing.

The racing industry produces an over-abundant supply of horses, as they continue to seek “a winner”, a horse who will bring fortune and fame to the owner, but who is more likely to be sold at auction to killer buyers, and sent to slaughter for the food chain, if they fail to perform, even after being pumped full of steroids, pain killers and other drugs. The story is not very different for greyhounds and other racing dogs, e.g.: the Iditarod.  In the case of circuses, the training of baby elephants, torn from their mothers and family groups is nothing but cruel and inhumane torture for the youngster, as it is for lions, tigers and other exotic animals, who have been taken from their native lands, the plains and jungles, to live in cages and chains and travel in boxcars or caravans of cruelty. Dolphins, orcas, killer whales, all extremely intelligent marine mammals, are all too often confined to what would be for them, the equivalent of a bathtub, and forced to perform tricks for a naive public that has no concept of how these creatures, born to swim the seas and oceans, suffer in confinement. Bullfighting is a barbaric and brutal anachronism, still prevalent in Spain, Latin America and even in the south of France.  Once considered a cultural “art form” today it is seen for the cruel and hideous slaughter of a majestic animal, that it really is.

Every living creature loves life and wants to live the life that nature intended for him/her to have.  So, when you see an animal in a TV commercial, performing in movies or used for any form of entertainment, stop for just a moment and think of what it must be like to live your life as a slave, imprisoned and deprived of everything natural, of family, a mate, a chance to raise your young; of your freedom to graze, hunt and roam and even your very right to exist.