“Stupid animal tricks” that amuse people are out of fashion these days, derided as exploitive, undignified and even abusive. Many elephants will lose their jobs and die in the next few years because of the long war against animal tricks in circuses and elsewhere, San Francisco has recently the use of any animal in the city for the purpose of entertaining human beings.
I’m not sure how it came to this denigration of animal tricks, I don’t do a lot of them myself, but I do know that behaviorists and animal lovers are pained and puzzled to see the use of animals to uplift and entertain people – something they have been doing successfully throughout human history – become almost criminalized.
Animal tricks can be use to bond animals with people, stimulate their imagination, improve their intelligence and body co-ordination, communicate with humans, and yes, for sure, entertain people. That is not a crime to me, nor is it abusive, if done humanely and thoughtfully.
My first fascination with animals came from seeing those elephants at the circus, it does make me sad to think that in a few years no child in America will ever get to see it again. I thought the tricks i saw were wonderful, and I have seen marveled at the things animals and people can learn to do together. Our joyless and increasingly humorless culture has taken a strange turn. Nobody wants to say where the elephants will go once they are kicked out of the circus.
A friend sent Maria some tricks to do with Chloe so that the two of them would learn to talk to each other and bond. It is sure working. This one is called “up-down,” Maria holds a carrot in her hand and raises her hand in the air so the animals can go “up” and lowers it to the ground on the word “down.”
Chloe and the donkeys love this game, they got it in seconds and Maria credits the fun they are having with helping them to communicate and bring them closer together. She has learned a lot about Chloe and the pony seems to be paying more and more attention to Maria all of the time.
It is wise, I think, to be careful about jumping to conclusions about animals. Anything that brings us closer together with them and gives them joy and purpose is, to me, a good thing, done well. It is illegal to abuse an animal anywhere in America. The legal definition of abuse is the crime of neglecting or harming an animal to the point of grievous injury or death. I don’t believe tricks fit the bill.