Do Not Take Your Children to the Circus!

PETOSKEY, Mich. - June 13, 2014 - PRLog -- Please. Do not take your children to the circus.

The circus is coming to Harbor Springs, Michigan - a circus that has been cited for multiple USDA infractions for animal neglect and cruelty. Their USDA license was suspended by court order in 2011 for continued failure to comply with standards of care.

Circuses deny animals everything that is natural and important to them. Animals are beaten if they will not perform and their basic instincts are met with punishment.

Circuses chain‚ cage‚ and hurt animals. Animals are caged for their entire lives, are beaten by handlers who want to establish dominance, and they live and travel in caged squalor. Animals in circuses never asked to live the circus life.

Circuses use training methods that are extreme. Trainers routinely "correct" animals by hitting them, whipping them, and using electric prods.

Children identify with animals and they learn from our interactions with animals. If you expose your children to animals who are being humiliated and forced to perform unnatural acts‚ children will assume it's acceptable to bully weaker beings. Is this really the message we want to teach?

I hope you are raising your children to be strong‚ confident‚ and compassionate. I hope you are teaching your children not to harm those who are defenseless. For many parents, however, ignorance is bliss. They turn a blind eye to the truth of the animal abuse in a circus - the abuse they're paying for their children to witness. Your hour of entertainment is the circus animal's lifetime of misery.

There are better ways to learn about animals than going to the circus. Volunteer with your children at the local humane society. Watch a great documentary together about animals. Take a hike to see animals and birds in their natural habitat.

Please. Do not take your children to the circus.