Council misses opportunity

By Katherine Mortimer - Vernon Morning Star Published: September 16, 2010 6:00 PM

Vernon council had the chance to do the right thing this week. Instead, Vernon once again stands out as one of the decreasing number of communities still willing to welcome circus animals to town. Coun. Mary-Jo O’Keefe thinks it would be sad if circuses no longer came to town. And that, because very few people have the opportunity to travel to Africa to see lions, elephants and other beasts in the wild, then they should be able to see them at the circus. “Sometimes, they serve a good purpose,” she said. I’m wondering exactly what that purpose would be. The “training” of circus elephants is a vicious process where bullhooks and other torture devices are used to get the animal to do as it’s told. Blow torches and electric prods are also tools of the trade. Animals are kept in filthy conditions and transported in sub-standard accommodation to get from one destination to the next. When the Jordan World Circus came to town this summer, it was met by a few protestors outside the “big top.” According to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, this particular circus has a long history of animal-rights violations. Jordan no longer possesses an exhibitor licence from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The animals are leased from outside companies, so Jordan is no longer subject to citations under its own name. During the time it was USDA-licensed, Jordan World Circus failed to meet minimal federal standards for the care of animals used in exhibition as established in the Animal Welfare Act. The USDA cited the circus numerous times for inadequate and unsafe enclosures and for failure to provide proper veterinary care, proper animal handling, nutritious food and clean water, shelter from the elements, and exercise.Jordan is just one of the many circuses that have a history of animal rights violations.

So Vernon residents will still have a chance to continue supporting this barbaric and backward form of entertainment. I’m trying to understand why Vernon council refuses once again to stand up for those who can’t stand up for themselves, and I applaud the empathy expressed by Coun. Buffy Baumbrough, when she said. “There’s no educational opportunity to this. The animals are living in stressful conditions and used for our entertainment.” It just stuns me that in the 21st century we still think it’s OK to force an elephant to stand on a small platform or for a tiger to jump through a ring of fire. Maybe I missed the memo that declared the reason that lions, tigers, bears, elephants and any number of magnificent beasts were put on this earth was for our amusement. Coun. Bob Spiers believes that if Vernon bans animal circuses, they will go elsewhere. Not if B.C. communities continue to ban them, communities that so far include Kamloops, Kelowna, Salmon Arm, Langley, Nanaimo, Vancouver and Victoria, to name just a few.

I went to the circus recently. It was an amazing, jaw-dropping show with beautiful music, awe-inspiring acrobats and extremely funny clowns. There wasn’t an animal anywhere to be seen. You may have heard of it: Cirque du soleil, a Montreal-based operation that since 1984 has visited more than 250 cities around the world, with close to 100 million spectators taking in the amazing spectacle that is a Cirque show. And Cirque is just one of the many animal-free circuses performing around the world. So you can’t make it to Africa? Too bad. Watch the Discovery Channel instead.