Last Sunday week my sister Catherine drove us back home, and following her came a whole convoy of circus vehicles and caravans for the Moscow State Circus, which performed last weekend at our nearby Recreation Ground in Colchester. Sad to say, three days later - yesterday in fact - I watched the vehicles going the other way out of town at the end of the show's run, before I had a chance to go and see it.
Family reunions and other commitments were my excuses for not attending (as well as the cost), but if I'm honest I suppose the reason I never went is the same reason I might have liked to have gone - there aren't any animals doing tricks anymore.
The very valid and truthful argument is that it's cruel to the animals keeping them caged and taught to do tricks outside of their natural environment. But on the other hand, when I think about it, some of those creatures have a greater life expectancy in circuses (or zoos) than they ever would out in the wild.
It harks back to an age when families and children who had never seen such creatures in their life before could see them at close perspective, live in performance. Now we have David Attenborough and Bill Oddie on TV to show us the outdoor wonders of the animal kingdom.
The circus has left town now. I'm sorry I missed it.
No comments:
Post a Comment