Since the dawn of history highly skilled human acts have drawn crowds of spectators. In ancient Egypt small bands of human entertainers; jugglers and fire-eaters, acrobats and jesters, roamed from village to village. At that stage there were no performing animals as such.  Animals were widely revered.  They were part of a highly evolved system of beliefs.  Ancient Egyptian mythology is full of animals, their gods often represented by animal figures.

(Left to Right) Lee Rhiannon (Greens MP), Katherine Rogers (WLPA),
Margaret Setter (Animal Liberation), and Beryl Anderson (WLPA)
at Taronga Park Zoo

Circuses using performing animals can be dated back to the empire of ancient Rome, where the Roman masses were entertained by chariot races and exhibitions of dare-devil horsemanship; events which over time became ever more cruel and ever more fatal.  

 “Bread and circuses” is a Roman phrase that has resonated down the centuries.  It refers to a technique employed by the Roman ruling class to pacify unemployed, discontented peasant farmers, displaced by foreign slaves as a result of Rome’s conquests.  The Roman circus constituted a flamboyant display of human power over nature. A death or maiming in the circus arena was of little consequence, for the human performers were slaves, no different from the animals with which they were forced into combat.

Roman legions waged a war against nature, bringing back hundreds of thousands of human slaves and trophy animals to feed the bloodlust of the masses.   This bloodthirsty epoch continued to expand for nearly six hundred years until it collapsed, in tandem with the Empire that had made its existence possible.

For hundreds of years thereafter, ill-fed human performers, often accompanied by a performing bear, found their audiences at local fairgrounds.  The circus as such fell into disuse until the early 19^th century, the age of empire, when imperial powers like England and France brought in wild animals of every description to perform alongside human “savages” captured from far-flung corners of the earth, in the modern equivalent of the Roman Circus.

The 20^th century saw the gradual evolution of the circus into one billed as “good clean family entertainment”, in line with changing public tastes.  To this day, a gullible public continues to be beguiled by tender scenes of bottled-fed baby lions, romping like kittens with circus children, all part of one big happy family.  But cute kittens soon grow to adulthood.  They may be “tame”, but they are never domesticated.  They retain all their wild instincts and given the chance, will sometimes attack and kill their human captors.

In 1992, a magnificent tiger named Genghis escaped from a circus into bushland surrounding St. Mary’s shopping centre in outer western Sydney.  For two hours marksmen with high-powered rifles stalked this terrified animal until he was caught in the glare of a spotlight and killed.  Genghis was only 18^th months old.  Had he been born in the wild he would just be leaving his mother, having learned from her all the skills he needed to survive in the wild.  Born in captivity, his brief life was spent confined to a small cage in which he paced up and down, in much the same fashion as did demented humans confined in old-fashioned lunatic asylums.

Circus animals remain what they have always been; slave animals that are bought and sold, just like human slaves.  Because they remain the private property of the circus, independent investigators cannot access records of births, deaths, sale or transfer of these animals. In NSW there are only four inspectors who operate out of the Department of Agriculture, three of them stationed in Orange.  The circus represents a hidden universe of animal suffering, one that Animal Liberation is pledged to abolish in its entirety.

On the brighter side, long years of campaigning have led to considerable reforms benefiting the animals.  Gone forever are the chimps and other animals dressed in human clothes.  No longer do we see a terrified big cat forced to jump through a blazing hoop.  And circuses must not attempt to keep an animal as a passive exhibit.

Yet the circus remains as an institution.  Even with the best will in the world, circuses cannot satisfy an animal’s behavioural and social needs.  Animals are forced to endure long journeys overland in cramped cages:  Their existence, when not in the ring, is one of extreme boredom and futility.  Despite thirty years of publicising and constant campaigning on these issues, a minority of the public continue to patronise the animal-based circus, permitting it to survive, albeit on a smaller base.  We cannot afford to rest on our laurels but must continue to maintain the pressure until the animal-based circus is relegated to the dustbin of history.  How long this process will take is impossible to forecast.  The decisive factor will be how quickly human awareness will develop in terms of the development of animal consciousness.

ANIMAL CONSCIOUSNESS: THE DAVINCIANS.

Tom Regan, the American philosopher and animal rights advocate, believes that all humans have at least some potential to develop an animal consciousness.  He thinks some children are born with this “animal consciousness”.  These children, and they are but a small minority, possess an intuitive understanding of an animals’ interior life; its many moods; when it is happy, and when it is bored or distressed.

Regan calls these children “DaVincians”, after Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519, the artist and greatest mind of the Italian Renaissance.  From an early age, Leonardo was reputed to posses an unusual empathy for all animals. He is credited with being an ethical vegetarian, who abhorred the idea of unnecessary suffering and the taking of life.

Very few people, including a majority of animal rights advocates, are like Leonardo. 

Most of us see animals the way our culture sees them.  Regan calls this form of understanding a “hand-me-down kind of understanding”.  If our culture sees other animals as existing for us, having no purpose for being in the world other than to satisfy human needs, we see them that way too.  That doesn’t mean we don’t “love” them but it shows that our love is of an infantile nature. 

THE DAMASCAN EXPERIENCE

We are all on a journey through life, exploring and learning as we go.  Some people experience a dramatic change in attitude because at some stage, they undergo a change in perception.  In some cases this change occurs – literally - “in the blink of an eye”. 

Regan calls these people Damascans, citing the familiar Biblical story of Saul walking his road to Damascus to participate in the persecution the city’s Christian population.  At some stage on the road, the story tells us that Saul experienced a vision of the risen Christ. As a result, Saul the persecutor of Christians was reborn as Paul the apostle.  He followed his Saviour for the remainder of his life, for whose sake he was put to death by crucifixion. Like Paul, some of us experience this once in a lifetime awakening, and are changed forever.

MOST OF US ARE “MUDDLERS”

Regan believes the majority of people are neither DaVincians nor Damascans.  Most of us fall into the category of “muddlers”, who may be moved and stirred by an experience, then lose the feeling, go on to other things, and in this manner muddle around for years before we finally change, but when we do, that change is likely to be permanent.

It is more than sixty years since I attended my first, and as it turned out, my last animal circus.  At that time the institution was still in its heyday and after all these years I still recall the enormous joy I felt as the animals entered the arena for the Grand Parade.  The beauty of the gorgeously caparisoned elephants and horses, the gossamer gowns of the “fairies”, the glitter and sparkle of the scene, bathed in criss-crossing coloured beams of light; all combined to create an enchanted world.

Everyone, especially the animals, seemed to be having so much fun! 

I had to wait forty years until about 1988, before my daughter Michele, then in her twenties, presented me with my “Damascan” experience. The Moscow Circus was playing at the Sydney Entertainment Centre and she went along to see its fabulous performing bears.  By sheer chance she was given a seat from which she could see the bears waiting in line behind the scenes.

One bear was quite small, only a baby really, but his little face was muzzled and he was, like the rest of the troupe, in a state of terror.  None of them were volunteers. Only the savage beating around their legs kept them moving forward toward the ladder leading up to the highwire.  They had good reason to be afraid.  Humans performing on the highwire were protected by a safety net.  This was removed just before the animals came on. 

There could be no clearer demonstration than this of the low status accorded the animals.  They were things, like blocks of wood, whose lives had no value in the eyes of their captors.  They were just as expendable as a block of wood or a lump of coal, as easily replaced with another.  When the audience saw the danger to the bears, they were not impressed as would their ancestors had been.  Their angry murmurs rumbled around the tent.

When I was informed of this incident I immediately reached for the telephone book and contacted Animal Liberation NSW. An animal rights advocate was in the process of being born.

The Moscow Circus continued its biennial tours of Australia.  By 1996 Animal Liberation had the benefit of the Internet and instant communication by email. As a result we succeeded in rallying 400 protesters for the opening night. And that was not the end of it.  Protestors were present outside the Entertainment Centre at every performance.  In less than two weeks we distributed more than 15,000 leaflets! 

By the end of the nineties, the Moscow ceased using exotic animals on its Australian tour.  We had achieved a significant victory.

During the same period the local circus lobby bragged and boasted that Australia was experiencing a circus renaissance.  The actual situation was that most circuses were struggling just to exist.  Some, like Perry Bros., were going out of existence. Faced with rising costs, and a contraction of the market in vital rural areas, an aging circus population was surviving literally on the backs of their animals.  Without their animals, they would be finished, as one elephant trainer stated.  The elephant population was in decline.  It was estimated that between them, Australian circuses possessed only 12, two of them held by Stardust Circus.

When Bambi died of asphyxiation while under sedation for minor surgery, Stardust was left with one elephant, which was illegal under new legislation gazetted in 1996.  Animal Liberation NSW took up Arna’s cause and, through our efforts to have her relocated to a free-range zoo to be with others of her kind, made Arna a celebrity.  Information and pictures on our website triggered an strong reaction from overseas individuals and groups.  Animal rights groups throughout the world advocated for her cause, but their pleas fell on deaf ears so far as the circus and its “regulator”, the NSW government were concerned.

On December 27, 2000, about sixty animal rights advocates witnessed and recorded an incident concerning Arna on video.  Our CEO, Mark Pearson, personally laid charges of aggravated cruelty against Stardust.  To our surprise Australian veterinary experts sent copies of the video were reluctant to give evidence in court on Arna’s behalf.  It seems most were reluctant to risk future advancement in their profession by speaking out.  Animal Liberation had to bring in expert witnesses at great expense from overseas.  We also arranged for a video hook-up between the courtroom and Edinburgh University to enable one expert witness to testify.

In the end, despite all the work and the great expense, we failed to breach the barriers of prejudice and anthropomorphism.  Arna remains with the circus but now shares her life with Gigi, the last survivor of three elephants once the property of the now defunct Ashtons Circus.  Arna’s story and our struggle to free her remains on our website for all to see.

HUMAN CIRCUSES; AS OLD AS THE HILLS AND AS FRESH AS TOMORROW

The so-called traditional circus is like the Biblical ark, with its pathetic cargo of animals suspended in space and time.  Even at the best of times Australian circuses have led a hand-to-mouth existence.   To cut costs they operate with a skeleton staff, recruiting casual labour as needed.  The jobs they generate seldom last longer than a week or two.  Often individual animal acts are sourced in a similar fashion, usually from a trainer who keeps the animal, usually a monkey, confined at his own home. 

In recent years another type of circus has been reconstituted, one featuring highly skilled human acts.

Unlike often poorly educated worker in traditional circuses, the modern circus offers its performers an academic education, through a degree course at Swinburne College, Melbourne.  The modern circus creates skilled occupations throughout a number of fields, including, for example, sound engineering, costume and scenery design, and choreography.  Highly trained performers can expect to move into other areas of skilled employment once their performing days are ended. 

This process creates what economists refer to as “the multiplier effect”, stimulating business among trades and contractors adjacent to the circus industry.  The modern circus therefore is a “sunrise” industry, one that helps make Australia internationally competitive, not least by attracting patronage from visiting tourists.

This is the way forward.  The circus with its pathetic menagerie has had its day.  As a society we are moving toward a reassessment of our relationship with other animals.  There are many false starts and blind endings to overcome.  Our success in that direction will be measured by how well we articulate the arguments in support of animal liberation.

Margaret Setter’s Bio:

Margaret joined Animal Liberation NSW in 1989 and served as a Director from 1990-95. She has been a volunteer for 15 years standing and has been involved in direct action on behalf of battery hens and pigs exploited in factory farms. With Ken Setter she lobbied Liverpool Council and campaigned locally against animal-based circuses. In 1998 Liverpool Council imposed stringent conditions for circuses performing in Liverpool. No circuses using exotic animals have since performed in Liverpool.

Margaret Setter has just celebrated her 70^th birthday. She is still as active as ever and we at the Abolitionist are justifiably proud to have her as one of our major contributors to our work.