I was watching TV last night and saw a commercial for the Royal Hanneford Circus. Normally people would not think this is a big deal, but they don’t know what goes on after the show.

I am writing of the terrible abuse of animals. Children must be warned that circus animals are NOT having fun. The USDA has charged circuses with more animal rights violations than most factory farms and animal testing laboratories.

“Trainers” of circus animals do horrible things to make them perform inane tricks. First, they steal the animals from their mothers in the wild, making mother and child permanently depressed — usually this is done by shooting the mother. Second, these animals are kept in cages so small that most cannot even turn around. Third, they train them by whipping, beating and electrocuting them into submission.

If the animals don’t get it right, they are brutally beaten until they learn to perform the trick. After these animals are too old to give a “peak performance,” they are not taken to a wildlife refuge, but are shot and thrown out like yesterday’s garbage.

I urge everyone to please not support the circus by going to see these barbaric displays of human domination. If your kids knew how these animals got to the ring, they surely would not want to go. Clowns and trapeze artists are fun, and having fun, but the animals are not.

Justin Lehmann

Ames