Tuesday, 22 March 2011

Animals: The Abandoned & Abused (Part 4)

This is the final part of a four-part article by Francesca Saliba (Greenhouse Executive Member) on animal rights and animal cruelty.
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Entertainment also brings about animal cruelty where an animal is sometimes taken from its natural habitat and being made to perform tricks, which they do not normally do in the wild. This is the case in the circus entertainment industry. These creatures are being constantly under pressure as they are kept in small areas, keeping in mind the animal size in question, and left alone for hours where they often get stressed and depressed which is shown from their repetitive behaviour. Not to mention their constant travelling and teaching manner used to make a tiger, elephant, bear, hop and down or perform artificial acts. In some animals, like elephants, you can see light patches where he/she was maltreated. They are most often left in cages after the performances, especially while travelling and abused regularly, to learn and be in charge, even if they are born captive, they are performing unnatural tricks. International Organisations like PETA- People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and MFA - Mercy For Animals and National Organisation, Animal Rights Coalition aim at stopping this cruelty as anti circus messages for awareness.[1]

The logo for the Circus Animal Rights Coalition, a local coalition of which Greenhouse is affiliated with.

An animal is more gracious to see in the wild rather than for your own pleasure, such animals go through a lifetime of misery just because you are not able to see him in his natural environment. This also happens in other shows like dolphinarium where dolphins have this missed signal as they are seen always smiling but they do get tired and angry and in fact some even burst in the glass tanks trying to get out. CETFREE is a coalition of Maltese and international NGO’s sharing the common belief that captivity is cruel and that education cannot be accomplished through the use of animals in captivity.

Although it is very difficult in certain cases to put them back in the wild, but at least certain shows should be stopped and animals should be respected!

Protesters at an ARC protest in Valletta

[1] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8588332.stm

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