Over 300 animals have become residents of Grace's Home and lead happy and
healthier lives. With your donation the dream is to expand
so that we can share
Grace's Home with many more abused and neglected animals.
If you would like to help Grace's Home please contact
Pam Strange at (318) 361-0333 or email grace@bayou.com
Grace's Home
P.O. Box 1305
West Monroe, La 71294
Circus Truths
Cruel Training
For animals in circuses, there is no such thing as “positive reinforcement”—only varying degrees
of punishment and deprivation. Animals do not voluntarily ride bicycles, stand on their heads, or jump through rings of fire. They
don’t perform these and other difficult tricks because they want to; they perform because they’re afraid not to. For information about
specific circuses, click here.
Circuses easily get away with routine abuse because no government agency monitors training sessions.
Trainers use bullhooks, whips, sticks, electric prods, and other tools that intentionally cause pain and injury in order to force
animals to perform. Undercover footage of behind-the-scenes training shows elephants beaten with bullhooks and shocked with electric
prods, big cats dragged by heavy chains around their neck and hit with sticks, bears whacked and prodded with long poles, and chimpanzees
kicked and hit with riding crops.
Constant Confinement
Ringling Bros. boasts that its two units travel more than 25,000 miles as they
tour across the country for 11 months each year. Constant travel means that animals are confined to boxcars and trailers for days
at a time in extremely hot and cold weather, often without access to basic necessities, such as food, water, and veterinary care.
Some
elephants spend almost their whole lives shackled. One study of traveling circuses observed an elephant who spent up to 96 percent
of her time in chains. Tigers and lions usually live and travel in cages 4 feet high by 7 feet long by 7 feet wide, with two big cats
crammed into a single cage. Big cats, bears, and primates are forced to eat, drink, sleep, defecate, and urinate in the same cramped
cages.
Public Danger
Frustrated by years of beatings, bullhooks, and shackles, some elephants snap. And when an elephant rebels against
a trainer’s physical dominance, trainers cannot protect themselves, let alone the public.
In 1994, an elephant killed her trainer
and injured 12 spectators before being gunned down by almost 100 bullets while running terrified through downtown Honolulu. In 1992,
officer Blayne Doyle had to shoot Janet, an elephant who charged out of the Great American Circus arena with five children on her
back. In speaking before members of Congress about the dangers of elephant rampages, Doyle lamented, “I have discovered, much to my
alarm, that, once an elephant goes out of control, nothing can be done. It is not a predictable or preventable accident. The only
thing that can be done—and even this is a danger to the public—is to get a battery of police officers in with heavy weapons and gun
the elephant down.” Click here to read more about the risks of performing animal attacks.
Circus Bans
Because of concerns about animal
mistreatment and public safety, a growing number of communities are banning or restricting the use of animals in circuses. Click here for
a complete list.
Animal-Free Circuses
The Latest Shows on Earth—the Cirque du Soleil, the New Pickle Family Circus, Cirque Éloize,
and others—are exciting and innovative circuses that dazzle audiences without animal acts. Click here for a list of animal-free circuses.
PETA has the best - most detailed information on circuses
They
have videos that will definitely make you think twice about going to a circus