For Limba's Sake

This isn't Halifax or Toronto; it's not as if there are big events going on every weekend. So when parents hear that a circus is coming to town, it seems like a great opportunity to get the kids out for a few hours of classic family fun.

I still remember going to the circus here in Port Hawkesbury a great many years ago, when it was at the old arena. Something tells me that, even as a kid, I was able to appreciate how lame the performances were, and yet I left feeling totally complete. The highlight - elephant rides at the very end of the show - made up for anything the rest of the evening may have lacked. And I don't think there's a kid who attended that circus who doesn't have memories of the elephants stinking up the place, and the handlers rushing to their rear-ends with buckets bigger than cars.

My kids (especially the younger one) love animals, and a close-up view of an exotic animal would thrill them to no end. I figured it would be money well spent to have them experience the clowns, stunts, and atmosphere of a real-life circus.

I had every intention of buying tickets to the Louisdale show, for all four of us. When I heard the afternoon would set me back over $70, I could barely believe it! A bit steep for my taste, but I figured hey, when will the kids get to see a show like this again? I was going to suck it up and buy the tickets on Friday afternoon.

It was Friday morning, creeping around Facebook, that I saw a friend of mine, a huge animal lover and (dare I say) advocate, had posted something about boycotting this circus. Never much of a bleeding heart, I would normally skip over a sentence like that without giving it a second thought. But, for some reason I decided to see what she was talking about, since it involved something I was about to support.

What I read disgusted me, and I'm pretty sure it'll disgust you, too.

The majority of the information I found came directly from a press release issued by the SPCA. They have officially taken a position against this circus' use of an elephant named "Limba", and have provided very compelling details as to why the public should consider doing the same.

Limba is a 45-year-old Asiatic elephant that was taken from the wild in the mid-60s, and has been forced to perform ever since. Not only does the SPCA not support the removal of exotic animals from the wild for the purposes of entertainment or profit, period, but they suggest that this particular elephant has earned her keep, and should be retired. While I tend to agree, there is even more reason why I won't be supporting this circus.

The fact that this elephant is the only one in the show, directly contravenes the policies regarding circuses in Nova Scotia set out by the Department of Natural Resources, the body that issued the permit.

A DNR document called "Standards Exhibiting Circus Animals in Nova Scotia", lays out the following provisions, all of which are violated by this particular circus.

Social species shall not be exhibited as single specimens unless compelling reasons can be shown...Elephants are intelligent, inquisitive and social creatures, and therefore circuses must not maintain single elephants. Elephants kept in circuses must be supplied with social contact with other elephants...As elephants are social herd animals, they must always be able to see and touch other elephants [emphasis added].

Limba the elephant is alone. While I don't think that being alone is as serious as being beaten or neglected, it is in the biological nature of these animals to interact with others of it's kind, and being deprived of that interaction, not to mention being drug around from town to town and paraded about for more than 40 years, is, in combination, the equivalent of abuse in my books.

I'm not sure why the almighty dollar causes to many people to show a complete disregard for the welfare of others, whether those others be human or pachyderm. Nor am I sure why the DNR chose to defy it's own policies and grant this circus a permit to operate in Nova Scotia. I suppose there really isn't much I can do about it, either - except not go. And before you lay down your $70, perhaps you might want to consider if you want to support an organization that puts money before kindness.