As Helen was writing about it a few days ago, animal rights activists are very present at music festivals, I see them all the time, and a lot of rockers and punk rockers have united to defend animals and denounce their exploitation. Remember about all these Sea World concert cancellations after the release of ‘Blackfish’? Awesome! It is at least a beginning, and did you notice how many Sea World adds you see on TV lately,… this shows they are experiencing some problem with their image, and MSN money is even reporting that they have seen a 6% decline in visitors in 2013! Excellent! Even though it is not enough, people will forget about ‘Blackfish’ soon as it is always the case. That’s why we have to continue denouncing these abominations exploiting animals for our entertainment.
Circus shows are another abomination, and yesterday I went downtown Los Angeles to join a protest against Ringing Bros. Circus, outside Staples Center. Morrissey would have been proud… But according to the LA Weekly, the LA City Council enacted in April a ban on cruelty to elephants, but this didn’t prevent the return of Ringling Bros’ in the big Staples arena! How come? Why is this possible? We know that they are horrible animal abusers, and I dare you to read this investigation published by Mother Jones regarding the treatment of elephants at Ringling circus, without crying every tear in your body. Why are we allowing this? Bullhooks, whippings, electric shocks, elephants dying in horrific conditions…. People should know about it, and I am all for showing baby elephants suffering and dying to little human children, let’s shock the little children, they can’t stay indifferent and they are the next generation who should abolish circuses once for all.
‘I don’t like them, they make me feel bad’ I heard a little girl say to her mother, who was trying to walk fast in front of the protesters. That’s the point little girl, and may be this kid has understood something yesterday. At least I hope so. Because it is very hard to make people realize about the horror going on. I was looking at these herds of people walking to the entrance, working very hard at not looking at the signs pointed right in their faces, showing them images of mistreated elephants, slogans denouncing the circus horrific techniques to ‘train’ animals, while a woman was talking in a megaphone, and PETA people (very present) were giving away coloring books for kids while chanting ‘Shame on you’ to the adults… nothing seemed to attract the attention of the adults, ‘Don’t you feel any guilt people?’ I wanted to scream at them, of course they feel guilty but they don’t want to admit it, they have paid good money for their tickets and don’t want to give up this ‘family fun night’.
‘There is no excuse for animal abuse’… ‘’Animal liberation’ were chanting the protesters,… ‘This is exactly what the Westboro Baptist Church does’ I heard a young man with a mocking smile say to his female friend. Oh, shiiiiit and shut up man, you are so very wrong at so many levels! Why some people don’t understand the obvious, that animals do not exist for our entertainment and should be free, that we, as animals (yes we are) are part of nature and should respect other species,… this guy had this same stupid smile that some people give me when I say I am a vegetarian… ‘Really you don’t eat meat? Not even chicken or fish?’ No I haven’t, for close to 30 years, and I pass for an extremist to these people’s eyes when I am doing the right thing.
The fact that Ringling Circus is sponsored by fast food chain Chick-Fil-A is another irony, and demonstrates that wealthy evil forces always unite… at the end, I am not sure that these protests are very efficient, the parallel with fast food companies is actually compelling: both torture and exploit animals and no matter how many times people are told that fast foods are the worst food habit, people still eat there and none of these chains is going out of business. Still Circuses should go out of business, or at a least leave the animals alone.
So why even protesting? But the wide-eyed little kids, watching this brouhaha with a mix of surprise, fear and discomfort, gave me some hope for the future. They just need to be exposed to more of these protests to understand that circuses and places like Sea World are jails for animals where they are abused. Children just don’t turn like your parents, children don’t grow up!
Some pictures of the protest here.
