Elephants in Circuses: What Child Psychologists Say

Child psychologists and those who have worked with elephants warn that events in which animals are forced to perform demeaning tricks fail to teach empathy to children.  Winnie Kiiru is a Kenyan-born wildlife ecologist who is currently studying for her doctorate in biodiversity management at the University of Kent in Canterbury, United Kingdom, where her fieldwork focuses on developing strategies to manage human-wildlife conflicts. Kiiru says, "Arguments are made that American children need to see elephants so that they can appreciate them. The sight of sick, depressed, and miserable elephants in unnatural settings and social groups is not what it takes to inspire appreciation. Technology, ingenuity, and other resources should be employed to introduce children to these animals without using and abusing them. This will inspire far greater and more appropriate understanding."

Furthermore, studies show that people who commit acts of cruelty to animals often engage in domestic violence and child abuse. For example, Ringling elephant trainer Sacha Houcke has been videotaped hooking elephants with a bullhook, and in April 2005, he was charged with assault in University Park, Pa., after “two employees of the Bryce Jordan Center called police and reported witnessing Houcke choke his daughter, push her to the ground and punch her in the face while they were working with the circus horses.” Houcke pleaded guilty to harassment and disorderly conduct charges and paid a $300 fine.

“I myself have seen a 6-year-old boy have a complete emotional breakdown after seeing a circus trainer with a whip, because his dad used to whip their animals, him, and his mother with a horsewhip.  ... [S]tudy after study has acknowledged that children who are violent toward animals have often been abused or exposed to abuse themselves and are much more likely be violent toward humans later on. Why would an adult using regular, systematic violence toward animals be any different?”

Christon Smith, Outreach Coordinator, Metro Abuse Link Coalition

“As caring adults, devoted to the development of caring children, we need to model attitudes to all sentient beings that respect and acknowledge their natural behaviors and needs. An industry based upon the use and abuse of wild animals has no place in either the education or entertainment of young children.”

Barbara W. Boat, Ph.D., Director, The Childhood Trust, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Children’s Hospital Medical Center

 “I believe that when children go to circuses, they may receive a very negative impression about the way we relate to and treat wildlife. On many occasions, the animals are the source of ridicule and devaluation, two outcomes that improperly prepare young people to have a positive appreciation for animals.”

Aubrey H. Fine, Ed.D., Professor, College of Education and Integrative Studies, Licensed Psychologist, California State Polytechnic University

“Children’s love of nature can either be nurtured by parents until it blossoms into a life-long passion or nullified and even reversed until it becomes exploitative, fearful, and hostile. Strange as it may seem, taking one’s children to the circus is far more likely to contribute to the latter.”

Allen D. Kanner, Ph.D., Author, Bay Area Clinician, Ecopsychology Teacher, Wright Institute in Berkeley

“[D]eveloping minds should not be exposed to the physical abuse of animals by people. ... Equally devastating is the practice of exposing an animal to ridicule, laughter, and devaluation. ... [W]e are teaching our young to ignore the feelings, the needs, and the rights of other living individuals.”

Melvin E. Levine, M.D., Director, Clinical Center for the Study of Development and Learning, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

“To allow circuses to continue to use wild animals for entertainment denigrates a child’s development of humane attitudes because it does not convey an understanding of the needs of another species.”

Karen Schaefer, Ph.D., Counseling and Student Development, New Mexico State University