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THE REAL ANTI-CIRCUS AGENDA

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CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION	BACKGROUND
THE RISE OF ANIMAL LIBERATION	REGULATION
INFLUENCE	DEBATE
LABELS	THE ANIMAL LIBERATION CASE AGAINST CIRCUS AND ZOOS
MEDIA SAVVY -- LIBERATION VERSUS CIRCUS	ANIMAL LIBERATION AND ANTI-CIRCUS GROUPS
GLOSSARY AND REFERENCE

INTRODUCTION

The "Animal Rights Movement" has been a strong critic of the traditional American Circus for over twenty years and a fierce opponent of the circus for well over a decade. "Activist" efforts have resulted in out and out bans on traditional circus in a few communities and prohibitions on animal rides or animal contact in a handful of States. Activists have targeted circus sponsors and vocally disrupted circuses. Protestors are a frequent fixture near circus lots in some parts of the country. Extremists have destroyed circus equipment. A few circuses have responded to "activist" campaigns by giving up on traditional animal acts entirely and others have removed exotic animals from their programs. Some shows that continue to carry a full compliment of animal acts appear to keep an intentionally "low-profile" to avoid confrontation with protestors or mention "animal rights" when lamenting adverse business conditions. Historically an argument can probably be made that "animal rights" has had surprisingly little impact on the circus "bottom line" and that business conditions better reflect five years of a down economy, a war, high fuel prices, and the need to reexamine market strategies. Though well off the "highs" of the 1890's, the number of traveling circuses in the United States in 2005 is not far off the "average" over the past 150 years. Unfortunately some circuses have failed to understand what their critics in the "animal rights movement" are truly after, or to discern their broad reaching agenda well beyond bigtop.

Animal Rights is about "Animal Liberation", a utopian philosophical ideology imbued with absolute moral certainty. As a result of this misunderstanding, too often circuses and their fans have lacked for a savvy response to repeated attacks.

BACKGROUND

The term "Animal Rights" encompasses aspects of the traditional mainstream Animal Welfare agenda and the far more radical notions associated with "Animal Liberation". Animal Rights Activists frequently subscribe to at least some of the ideological tenets of Animal Liberation.

The term "Animal Liberation" dates to the 1970's and academic work of writer Peter Singer. Animal Liberation is an ideology based on Singer's philosophical thesis; to wit all sentient (thinking) species are equally valuable and therefore deserve equal "rights" and protections. According to the philosophical school of thought championed by Singer, virtually all human interactions with other species involve the exploitation of those species. In Singer's view there are no "lesser animals."

This article reprinted with permission of the author: B.E.Trumble -- 2005