Narrative Essay
The Circus by Matkurbanova Gulzat
It was a long time ago, when my children were still young. I took them to the city zoo because I wanted them to see real animals. I noticed that animals were behaving strange. Some were just laying there and doing nothing. Others were just moving their heads or walking in a circle. They rushed to any place where children feed them. There I saw a little-sad tiger.
I felt very sorry for it, because the cub will never know freedom and life in the forest. Then I disliked the zoo.
A year later I brought my daughters to the circus. As we entered the building, I could smell sharp and unpleasant odor which made me sick. Since we came early, my daughters started playing with other children in the lobby where there were a lot of attractions for children.
"Mom, animals will act in the arena?," Umida, my elder daughter asked with glowing eyes.
"Of course," I said.
Both my girls were very happy.
"Mom,How are you feeling?" asked Umida.
"Absolutely awful," I stammered.
Shoira, my younger daughter, looked up at the two of us from under her eyelashes and patted my arm.
"Sweetie, give me a hug, please, " I asked her.
She shook her head and hugged me.
"Good, now I feel much better," I said.
In the arena, there were clowns, jugglers and acrobats. But a special delight in children were caused by performance of animals. We saw beautiful animals that played ball, spinning the hoops and performing complex tricks. Of course, back then I did not understand that the animals in the circus did not obey their trainers voluntarily. I did not realize how animals suffered before delivering pleasure to audiences. I received the answer after some time when I asked animal trainers. So, trainers had sticks with them which was an electric wand. I noticed that tigers and lions were afraid when the
'— X trainer approached them with his or her stick.
Recently, I saw a film about circus animals. Without tears watching the film is was not possible! In the movie, I learned a lot about the life of animals cooped up. By learning how they were trained, I was horrified. Animal children were taken apart from their mothers. They were kept in terrible conditions, usually in closed cages with high or low temperature. They were fed poorly, were injected with many drugs. Their teeth and claws were removed painfully. While they were being transported, majority of these animals did not survive and die in a horrible conditions. In film, circus elephant Yambo escaped to the streets. Rather than return it back to circus, trainers just decided to kill it. The execution was attended by three hunters who shot two hundred bullets to the head of an elephant. I wonder, how can people do this to their "younger brothers" ? Circus animals - are in miserable conditions with crippled bodies. Circus takes away from animals all their freedom and natural beauty. By attending the circus, we do not hesitate to see how poor animals are performing all these tricks. We like to look at them, because apparently all seems well; trainers are smiling, animals performing tricks, audience applauding and admiring all these actions.
I think that, main reason why this is happening is - it is a big business. Because by watching funny animals performing complex tricks, people pay a lot of money! I would not want animals being used in circuses. I am also against keeping animals at zoos. Circuses and zoos - are prisons for animals. It should not be like these! Circuses and zoos should be closed. Animals should be released by their God given freedom. We should not take our children to circuses, because it would mean that we are deceiving them. Showing abused animals as entertainment is not correct. Don't these animals deserve more humane attitude?
The polar bear should not sit under the scorching sun in a thirty-degree heat and the lion should not be cramped in the cage area of forty square meters! It is unnatural and unfair! We are killing our morality by going to these zoos and seeing animals sitting behind bars. Why do people catch animals when these animals can be viewed in the TV. It is a much more interesting than watching offended, sick and exhausted circus "artists" who only dream of how to get rid of the power of humans. We humans, are in higher intelligence, so why we cannot understand simple things. Animals deserve rights to live the way they want, not as the way people want. Alice Walker once said, "animals of the world exist for their own reasons, they were not made for humans." This quote is for all of us, makes us think at least a moment about our attitudes towards our "younger brothers".