Veterinary requirements of the
Association of Circus Proprietors
of Great Britain

This paper sets out the details of the Associations Veterinary Scheme for the year 1989 which have been recommended by Messrs. Taylor and Greenwood, the international zoo vets, and accepted by all members as a condition of membership.

It should be noted that these requirements are not of a permanent nature, but form part of a continuously self-improving programme. They are, therefore, reviewed annually following the advice of the Associations Consultant Veterinary Officers.

In all matters, these standards are mandatory and failure by any member to comply results in a membership certificate being withdrawn.

Inspections

Each member shall be the subject of four inspections in each calendar year, one of which will be carried out at a circus winter quarters. Each member is then subject to spot checks as and when the Consultant Veterinary Officers shall require.

The General Principles

1. A member may not travel with sick animals or those which become ill en route. Permanent accommodation for housing such animals away from the circus must be available at all times.
2. Members may not travel with more animals which, in the view of the Consultant Veterinary Officers, they can readily cope with in the light of the staff and other facilities available. No member may travel animals which are not working. Animals in the course of training may be travelled, but not those which are trained but not working. Animals being hand reared or young with their mothers are acceptable.
3. Each member must have sufficient staff not only to care for the animals, but to provide them with extended periods of exercise and activity. The Consultant Veterinary Officers are to give individual advice as to the necessary inspections when making inspections.
4. Members must plan their routes so that the circus sites are suitable to accommodate the animals under expected weather conditions and their is sufficient open ground for exercise.
5. Except in isolated circumstances, the minimum length of stay on any one site should be one week so as to minimise the amount of travelling involved and to allow appropriate use of exercise facilities.
6. Members must keep individual records of every animal, particularly on veterinary items. This should be made available to every vet or other official who inspects the animals in order that further comments and recommendations may be added.
7. Members staff should be trained and encouraged to undertake available animal management courses. They must be able to demonstrate to the Veterinary Officers their knowledge of the special requirements of each species they keep.
8. Members who take animals from outside their own resources must assume full responsibility for their care and veterinary attention. The employing circus is responsible for all aspects of this veterinary scheme.
9. Permanent circuses must have available exercise fields for all animals and those which cannot be exercised outdoors with reasonable &frequency for practical or legal reasons should not be booked.

Specific requirements for each species

1. Sea lions. These should not be travelled and if kept in permanent sites, they should be provided with swimming water which is changed daily or filtered, and at least one metre deep. The size of all pools must be provided in advance by the Veterinary Officers and appropriate food storage and preparation facilities must be provided.
2. Apes (chimpanzee, oran-utan). These should not be in circuses over the age of seven years. After this age, the provision of sufficient accommodation, space and safety arrangements is impossible.
3. Primates. No monkey can be used whose activity has to be restricted because it is other than completely tame, unless very large accommodation and companionship is available.
4. Elephants. These must have a covered tent available which provides complete wind protection and incorporates clear panels which facilitate sufficient ingress of daylight. All elephants should be stood off the ground and boards and chains should be in as new condition. Chains must be covered where they go round the leg and the covering must be kept well maintained. These chains must be lubricated daily. Board sizes should be a minimum of eight feet by six feet (seven feet by five feet for animals up to six years of age). Elephants standing on wet ground shall be reason for refusal of a certificate. Elephants must be gently exercised for the majority of the day. The Veterinary Officers will require a system whereby elephants are enclosed within a barrier of an acceptable size depending on the number and size of the elephants, and are allowed to exercise within the circus site either on a tether of acceptable length or without restraint. Elephants may not be restrained by two legs for the greater part of the day, and must be able to roam throughout most of the day, except where severe weather prevents this. In long periods of severe weather, elephants must be exercised in the ring.
5. Cats. All cats must have an exercise area to approved standards and sizes which is to be available throughout every day. The exercise cage must be of minimum dimensions of twenty feet by forty feet (or forty feet diameter) and one cage will be acceptable where there are two groups of animals. Two cages are required where there are three groups of animals. In addition, there should be an exercise prop or other toy in the exercise cage. The wagons in which the animals are transported and to which they retire at night must be a minimum of eight feet wide and provide a minimum of ten feet in length for an individual animal and a minimum of seven feet in length per animal where two or more animals are kept together. Shelves should be provided for leopards etc. Absence of an exercise cage shall be reason for refusal of a certificate.
6. Bears. These shall have the same accommodation as lions and tigers and an exercise cage shall be available with suitable furniture.
7. Dogs. These are generally kept as household pets, but where they are housed in a group they must be exercised twice daily as well as in the performance.
8. Horses. These shall be kept on standard cavalry lines. Suitable tents should be constructed so as to allow fresh air as well as protection, and the ground underfoot must be dry or covered with rubber matting or a thick layer of fresh straw. Horses which are tethered through the day must be exercised properly at least once in addition to the performance; and allowed other gentle exercise when not working. There must be a sufficient staff/horse ratio to make this possible.
9. Hoofed stock (exotics). These should be tethered or enclosed on open ground as far as possible and there must be sufficient space for this. They should be housed in tents on dry ground, mats or thick straw. Enclosures must be purpose-built and not makeshift.
10. Other animals. These may be used unless they have exercise or housing needs which cannot be met. Members must submit to the Veterinary Officers a list of animals which they intend to travel well in advance in order that appropriate recommendations can be made. The aim of these requirements is to make all members consider seriously which animals they use and to ensure that they do not take on those with which they cannot adequately cope. They are designed to ensure that all circus animals receive adequate fresh air and exercise.

Methods

Over a period of 18 months, 15 circuses in Britain (and one in Switzerland) were visited for a period of between 2 and 10 days each. Most circuses were visited more than once: at their winter quarters, while pulling down and during build up, and at their campsites. Performances were watched in all the circuses, some many times, with particular attention paid to animal acts. While we were with the circus, any training sessions, practices, exercise sessions, parades and educational activities for the public involving the animals, were also watched and recorded.

Understandably, since circuses have recently been under heavy attack from animal welfare organisations, the circus proprietors were highly suspicious initially of us visiting. Unlike the case of zoos which are open to the public much of the time, it would not have been possible to conduct this research without the co-operation of the circus people. Convincing the circus people that I was conducting a disinterested scientific study was difficult, but was achieved eventually. I addressed the Association of Circus Proprietors by invitation and since then circus people have shown us nothing but friendship, co-operation and an intense willingness to listen to criticisms and comment Visits by us to the circuses have either been by prior arrangement, or surprise visits. There is no doubt that the fact that I am doing this study, coming and going and talking to all the circus people from the grooms to the proprietors, presenters and trainers, about all aspects of their animals and their husbandry has had some effect on the treatment of animals in circuses; if only to make the circus people think seriously about it rather than confronting hostility (and often violence from animal welfare interested groups) with hostility and violence. There have, however, been some obvious improvements to the husbandry of specific species as a result of suggestions I have made and these are discussed in the appropriate sections.

If, when I was with a circus, I found that there were animals which in my view required veterinary attention as a result of physical disease, or I could help with the treatment of psychological disease, the case was discussed with the circus proprietor and suggestions made.

Five zoos were visited. A period of at least 8 hours was spent at each, during which the mammals in particular were visited and observed. In addition, appointments were made to discuss the zoo and its policy with the director or a decision-making member of the zoo staff wherever they were interested.

An inventory was made of all the non-pet animals in the circuses visited, together with details of their husbandry, including their veterinary care and disease incidence, species, ages, sexes; the number of stock people, and their reasons for being with the circus; what and how often the animals were fed and watered; their keeping conditions including size of enclosures; their groups size and composition; amount and type of exercise; movement around; contact with the public; training and performing frequencies; and any other management practices such as routine foot care, transportation and so on were also recorded.

An attempt was made to assess the way the animals were handled, and the relationship between stock people, trainers and presenters and their animals.

Because we were with the circuses for some days, living as members of the circus and were allowed access freely around at all times, we were able to check any information we had been given against what we saw happening. At no time, once we had been given permission to visit the circus, were we prevented or discouraged from wandering around at will where we wished, with the exception of watching the elephants at night which a couple of circuses were anxious about as they were frightened that we might disturb them too much. It was not possible to watch the large cats at night either as they had their shutters lowered over the beast wagon fronts. This was done for security reasons as well as to reduce disturbance to the animals.

The circuses are not identified by name as at the Association of Circus Proprietors meeting I promised that names would not be disclosed. An inventory of each circuss animals and their acts are not given for the same reason. In addition, the animal acts change each season, so it would be of little value.

During our time with the circus we had a tent or a caravan on the site with all the others and lived with the circus, usually within view of the stable tents. We made a total of 25 expeditions to circuses, spending a total of 79 nights and 115 days with the circuses.

The training sessions, if there were any, were assessed carefully in terms of the relationship of the trainer to the animals, the use of positive and negative reinforcement, the speed of learning new movements and tricks, and what these were. In relation to this, it was arranged for three individuals to work as grooms for one month each during the winter season in Circus Knies winter quarters at Rapperswil in Switzerland, where they work full time on training the next years acts. As a result, it was possible to monitor the training of a group of 12 Arab stallions over a nine-month period, the introduction of new acts for the elephants, and the training of a group of farm animals in a new act.

The behaviour of the animals in circuses and zoos was recorded on detailed sheets for one- hour periods. 124 different activities were recorded for 28 different species in a total of 2988 animal hours of observation. The majority of the observations were between 08.00 and 17.00 hours, but three 24-hour periods were observed on elephants, and two on horses, ponies and llamas. Other variables such as the place, the type of husbandry condition, the weather, the date and time were also recorded.

Behaviours which normally continued for more than 5 minutes, such as eating, standing, lying and so on were recorded in the number of five-minute periods in which the activity occurred for the hour. Activities which are of short duration, such as vocalisations or sniffing objects, and which usually occurred for less than 5 minutes, were recorded as occasions, and the total number for the hours observation summed.

The information from the observation sheets was fed into a computer, and a programme written for analysing it. The behaviours were then batched into:

Maintenance behaviour: eating, drinking, urinating, defaecating, standing, lying, dozing and sleeping, moving and ruminating (if relevant).

Self-directed behaviour: ear twitch, groom self, head shake, rub self, roll, stretch, scratch, sneeze, etc.

Object directed and manipulative: lick or smell object, play with object, investigate object, reach for object, etc.

Social affiliative: rub or sniff another, touch another, close contact, call, etc.

Aggressive: bite or kick, growl, attack, ear flatten (where relevant) etc.

Attention getting: certain vocalisations and other specific behaviour, such as trunk to floor banging in elephants.

Behavioural indices of fear: such as running away, increasing body tension, shivering and sweating.

Frustration behaviour: bar biting, chain pulling, head shaking (sometimes), pawing, tail wagging (some species), run at bars etc.

1. neuroses, in the stable or training
2. pathologies
3. high levels of aggression directed either at humans or other animals
4. stereotypies which are defined as repeated actions not normally in the repertoire which are fixed in all forms and apparently purposeless: weaving, head nodding, head twisting.
5. self-destructive behaviour, e.g. licking and biting parts of the body until they are raw
6. other abnormal and apparently purposeless behaviours, such as bar biting, pacing, running at bars etc.

Pleasure or excitement: playing, certain vocalisations, greeting, leaping around.

These categories are not mutually exclusive, certain behaviours may fall into several categories, and the inclusion of some behaviours in certain categories, such as those in frustration and pleasure, has little empirical basis although it does have some a priori base.

In this study it was important to try to assess categories such as distress and pleasure in animals in different husbandry systems as these indices are crucial in the assessment of their welfare. These categories, which have been discussed, attempt to do this.

The large number of species, and the different conditions in which the animals were recorded, indicates that the information accumulated is only useful for developing an overview of patterns of behaviour. It would be more satisfactory to have more time to develop this work further. Many activities did not occur often, and thus the total figures for the number of hours recorded are not large enough to warrant statistical treatment. Where statistics are relevant they have been applied, for example, test for significant differences in behaviour and how time is spent in the different husbandry conditions and to test for any significant difference between the behaviour of animals in zoos and circuses. More observations are required on certain species and conditions, particularly in zoos, to obtain more meaningful quantitative results. The results are presented in tables as this allows a more direct and accurate comparison than histograms, pie diagrams or other visually appealing representations. The statistical tests and the value of p where there is a significant difference are given.

The information on the presence or absence of physical disease and evidence for distress and pleasure of the animals in zoos and circuses and all other types of husbandry systems invented by humans - can help with environmental design or the disbanding of certain types of husbandry systems. One example of the latter was the banning of crated veal calves in 1987. This decision was taken on the grounds that the calves being young, and being unable to perform large numbers of the behaviours within their repertoire, including moving around, scratching themselves and interacting with others.

However, there are many who would still be opposed to certain husbandry systems, even if there were no evidence of behavioural distress in the animals involved. The animal welfare arguments here are philosophical, and it rapidly became apparent that a thorough investigation of animals in circuses, recording the physical health and behaviour of the animals, whatever the conclusions, would have little constructive effect on the debate, and ultimately would be unlikely to benefit the animals themselves.

Thus it was necessary to investigate all the arguments for or against circuses and zoos. By invitation from Professor B. Rollin, and with the help of a Welcome Foundation travel grant, I spent six weeks at Colorado State University, Colorado, USA, where they have a large and stimulating department of Applied Philosophy with strong links to Animal Science, Veterinary Science, Environmental and Development issues. I do not pretend to have learnt all the philosophy pertaining to the debates during such a short time, but perhaps have learnt how little I do know.

At each circus and zoo visited, various people owning, working in or speaking for the circus or zoos were interviewed and discussions on the various arguments for and against zoos and circuses were conducted to assess their attitudes, justifications and motivations. Without exception, all the circus proprietors, partners or spokespeople were very co-operative in this, open to suggestion and to consider new ideas. This was not always the case for zoos, some of whom showed little or no interest and gave the impression that there was nothing to discuss!

The RSPCA, Zoo Check and other animal welfare organisations in their publications state the case against captive and performing animals. These arguments have been considered carefully, as have the arguments of the zoo and circus people for performing animals in zoos and circuses.

There has been some discussion about having circuses without animals, and there has even been a clown school set up (which has had remarkably little contact with circus clowns! ). Two circuses have tried to run without animals, one ironically enough in the grounds of a zoo but neither of these were economically successful. We decided to find out what the circus audiences at performances felt about the circus, and in particular the presence of the animals in circuses. To do this we conducted a questionnaire survey with the co-operation of the circus personnel at circus performances where forms were completed and later analysed.

It is extremely important for a constructive approach to welfare debates that the participants from different areas of specialism understand, and indeed are conversant with each others arguments. This has not often been the case. My aim is to further the debate on the existence of circuses and zoos, on how their animals are kept and on how the humans relate to them, in a constructive way.

Statistics

Because of the number of different behaviours, species and variation in conditions, the reliability of the statistical comparisons must not be over emphasised. In addition, the number of hours of recorded behaviour in certain conditions is relatively small (for example, more recordings should be made in zoos), and many of the behaviours were relatively infrequent. They may, however, be particularly important as indicators of husbandry conditions, or of individual differences, and thus are analysed although the results should not be too heavily relied upon.

Behavioural differences under different conditions were analysed using the following methods:

1. The length of time a behaviour was recorded as the number of minutes/hour performed (laying, standing, moving, etc.) was compared for different conditions using the Mann Witney test.
2. A X2 test was conducted to test for significant differences in the occurrence of behaviours that were recorded as occasions, and were often not very frequent.
3. Behaviours were batched into categories to test for possible differences in these batches of behaviour between conditions (e.g. manipulation of objects in the environment or vocalising).
4. In some cases the batching is somewhat arbitrary and experimental, such as P behaviour related to frustration, distress and pleasure. Many of the behaviours are represented in several of these batches. The difference in the occurrence of these groupings were tested using a sign test.

List of behaviours recorded

Appendix 3

Results of questionnaire to circus audiences

Whilst with the circuses, we made a point of talking to Animal Liberation supporters who were demonstrating against circuses. It is worth noting that the Animal Welfare lobby had often never visited a circus and had, almost without exception, never witnessed any training. This despite being invited to attend at least two of the circuses we visited, including being allowed behind the scenes.

We also talked to many circus people.

We thought it would be useful to see what the circus audience thought of the performance and animals in circuses. We realised that to attend the circus meant that those completing the questionnaire would be biased towards circuses but felt that their opinion would still be of interest.

The results of 550 returned forms were:

1. 99.49% enjoyed the performance.
   
   
2. 57.39% of the audience liked the animal acts best, 16.6% liked the human acts best and 25.3% liked both equally.
   
   
3. 60.2% of the audience would not attend if there were no animal acts.
   
   
4. 91.69% of the audience would like to see the training
   
   
5. 93.6% of the audience like to be able to meet the animals after the show.

The large percentage of people who wished to see the training and to meet the animals after the show indicates the potential educational value of the circuses.