Champlain Valley Fair officials call the Nerger Lion and Tiger Show “educational,” but what kind of lessons are being learned from this type of entertainment?
A news item from the town of Pownal, Massachusetts, where the Nergers appeared last week, reported the twelve tigers and lone lion “leaping through hoops, walking backwards on their legs, playing leapfrog and taking commands from tamer Juergen Nerger.”
Will the spectators learn that tigers in the wild roam a territory of anywhere from twelve to four hundred square miles, or that in circus life they are confined to a lifetime of confinement in cages and constant transport from town to town?
Don’t expect that kind of “education” at the Fair. Instead, you’ll be likely to find spectacles like the “Bear Mountain” show, which the Champlain Fair featured in 2004. Bears living inside a sawdust filled, air conditioned double-wide trailer taught fair-goers about this specie’s “natural habitat,” while dancing, riding bicycles and standing on hind legs conveyed other important lessons to the onlookers.
Don’t be fooled. Circuses aren’t about education. And training big animals that have no inborn instinct to perform or please a human audience always involves bullying and intimidation. That’s why the Humane Society of the United States, the ASPCA, and every other reputable animal welfare organization in the country condemns these shows.
Learn more about what the Humane Society of the United States has to say regarding "Circus Myths" by clicking on the link just to the right, on this page.
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