O/T The Greatest Show On Earth (or the Saddest?)

[CAMiller]

No, not watching the Millers but a trip to the circus? Ringling Bros/Barnum & Bailey have announced that they will stop their show here in the US later this year after almost 150 years. Must admit I took my kids to see their 3 ring circus about 10 years back and loved it but times move on as do attitudes to animal treatment/care. Happy childhood memories of going to The Hippodrome Circus at Great Yarmouth when there on summer holidays; clowns, acrobats and animals, great family entertainment.

What do others think?

[kempo]

Children love the circus as I did but they do not understand the consequences to the animals.

It's cruel with common mistreatment of the animals.

I am not keen on zoos either but I suppose those doing breeding progs and so on put something back and maybe just about acceptable.

[Yak]

Never been tbh.

Don't like the idea of animals forced to perform tricks.

[Grist_To_The_Mill]

I could never get my head around the idea that somebody would mistreat an animal that's needed for their own income and livelihood.

Though the number of reports about how dressage horses are trained to dance and trot flies in the face of that theory.

And then we give the rider a gold medal and a knighthood.

[wrinkly]

I've been to Sea World in San Diego and Orlando many times. I used to love it and so did my kids. These days I give it a miss and feel a bit guilty for contributing to killer whales in captivity. A bit of a grey area as Sea World does do some good things for marine life but on balance I stay away.

[sota]

It's hard to get away from anything circus related here as it's known as the circus town. It's where John Ringling lived and was the winter home of his circus.

He built a mansion here which is a big tourist attraction and loads of local places are named after him...The main bridge linking the city to the keys is called the Ringling Bridge, there's Ringling avenue, boulevard etc etc. This is also home to loads of circus artistes such as the Flying Wallendas. Bello Nock etc. Nik Wallenda is the fella that walked across the Grand Canyon on a tightrope and between two buildings in Chicago whilst blindfolded etc.

Also we still host Circus Sarasota every year which we always go and see under their portable Big Top, it's brilliant. It's mainly acts like the Wallendas on the highwire and acrobats, trapeze, clowns, quick change artists, jugglers etc with hardly any animals at all.

We also have the Sailor Circus, which is a year round training circus for high school kids under a permanent Big Top. It's great watching teenagers learning the trapeze and stuff like that, they love it. It's basically a gymnastics tent.

I think the circus tradition will remain, but with fewer and fewer animals.

[kentmillerman]

sota. Many a people and my kind of circus. Too much cruelty towards animals in this world.

[CAMiller]

It's hard to get away from anything circus related here as it's known as the circus town. It's where John Ringling lived and was the winter home of his circus.

He built a mansion here which is a big tourist attraction and loads of local places are named after him...The main bridge linking the city to the keys is called the Ringling Bridge, there's Ringling avenue, boulevard etc etc. This is also home to loads of circus artistes such as the Flying Wallendas. Bello Nock etc. Nik Wallenda is the fella that walked across the Grand Canyon on a tightrope and between two buildings in Chicago whilst blindfolded etc.

Also we still host Circus Sarasota every year which we always go and see under their portable Big Top, it's brilliant. It's mainly acts like the Wallendas on the highwire and acrobats, trapeze, clowns, quick change artists, jugglers etc with hardly any animals at all.

We also have the Sailor Circus, which is a year round training circus for high school kids under a permanent Big Top. It's great watching teenagers learning the trapeze and stuff like that, they love it. It's basically a gymnastics tent.

I think the circus tradition will remain, but with fewer and fewer animals.

Thanks for that Sota, didn't realize the connection between Ringlings and Sarasota and just saw a story on the news about it.

PS Is there anything to be inferred from the fact you live in a town renowned for clowns

[jolly_roger]

Picking up on a point made above is there any difference between horses trotting around a circus ring and those doing odd maneuvers in a dressage ring?

Or the physical demands of events like the Grand National?

Surely it's taking advantage of a dumb animal in both cases?

[kentmillerman]

Agreed jolly.