I’m ordinarily that last person to promote anything that PETA does, but for once, I’m on their side of an argument. The undercover video of Ringling Bros. Circus animals being abused for no reason goes entirely beyond the pale and shows behavior that is disgusting and reprehensible. Quite frankly, it makes me want to boycott circuses from now on, as I refuse to give any money to support such inhumane behavior.

In this video, you can clearly see the pain inflicted on the animals, as the huge elephants flinch and bellow with the blows of the bull hook. You can also clearly see that some of this is done for absolutely no apparent reason and, even worse, is sometimes apparently done entirely out of sheer malice (accompanied by vulgar insults).

It’s really sad to see and makes me really question the whole idea of a circus and makes me really wonder what kind of activities go into making so many otherwise-wild animals ‘trained’ and ‘domesticated’.