Not Quite The Greatest Show on Earth
- Sasha Bohon
- Sep 17, 2019
- 2 min read
This past Friday I took my daughter to the circus for the first time. I was expecting the circus I grew up with, Ringling Bros, Barnum and Bailey Circus, the Greatest Show on Earth. Apparently, that's the Broadway of circus'. What I saw Friday night was not the circus I grew up with. It was still 3 rings, but in an open air agricultural facility. We sat on hard benches for almost 3 hours. I was expecting a stadium with actual seats.
There was no trapeze but they made up for it with aerial dancers and a woman doing tricks on a rope swing. They had a group of tumblers that were on America's Got Talent and they were really good. All the acts were pretty good. They had motorcycles in the cage, a tightrope walker, 2 clowns and several other acts.
The one thing I did not like were the animal acts. Listen, I love seeing the animals. Tigers are some of my favorites. And I don't have a problem with animal acts if the the animals are being treated well and not abused. Sadly, I don't know how many circus' can guarantee that. And I'm pretty sure this one can't. One of the first acts was the tigers. My daughter and I were so excited because we love watching these beautiful creatures and they had 2 white tigers. But I soon was not happy at all. I did not get a good vibe from the trainer. He radiated announce and aggression. He would throw around the equipment in the cage and even took the time to yell at one of the helpers outside of the cage for a good minute, which is a long time during a show.
Not too long ago I had gone to Wild Adventures with my daughter and watched the tiger show there. The trainer had been with these tigers since they were born. The only "tricks" they did were play things that tigers normally do in their everyday life. You could see how relaxed and comfortable they were. The tigers at this circus were agitated and not comfortable. I felt so bad for these beautiful animals.
The dog show seemed fine, though you could tell one of the women was more comfortable with the dogs than the other. The ponies were so disorganized, they kept doing the same thing and at one point I was worried they would trample over each other and get hurt. But then came the Elephants. They had 2, and they performed very well, but it was the same trainer as the tigers. He had a hook in hand and would yank on their legs and hit their thighs. I was so mad I almost cried.
But even with those moments, my daughter really enjoyed her first circus, and that's what is important.
Comentários