Previously, when researching my dissertations, I think it’s safe
to say I was caught up with the pressure of deadlines and reading with a
particular purpose in mind. I knew what I was looking for, or more specifically
what I wasn’t looking for from my sources and I just powered through the
material. I did get what I needed, but as so often happen in situations like
this, I can’t say I really took everything in.
However, it’s been different this time around and I have really
read and engaged with the articles I’ve
been examining and if truth be told, have actually found it both quite
difficult and infuriating. When you’re dealing with a subject you care about
and are confronted with information that is difficult to digest, it’s hard to
put into context what you are reading. For example, in one account an author
commented on how 80% of a shipment of animals died before making it to their
destination – and we’re not talking 10-20 animals or birds, we’re talking
hundreds if not thousands. It was an indulgent and exploitative trade driven by
imperialism that saw animal dealers, hunters and collectors, mine the earth’s
surface for animals to add to their collections, with no real understanding of
the long term implications. As one article described, ‘Africa was Jamrach’s
nursery’.
It’s also hard to read how a dealer might have received a shipment
of animals, the sum of which now equates to that of the surviving population
which is now fighting impending extinction. The root of many conservation
issues originate in this period and being someone who is aware and concerned
about those issues, it was quite thought provoking research. As a historian you
have to try and remain objective, weighing up the evidence to draw reasoned and
well-argued conclusions, but as a citizen concerned with environmental issues,
it was pretty hard stuff and I have to admit to having really struggled to remain
impartial on this occasion. I understand that it was of its time, but with a
modern mind set, it’s pretty hard to justify.
I think my feelings were also further exacerbated by a recent report
on how the bill to ban the use of wild animals in circuses in the UK has been
blocked by Tory backbenchers for the final time. Even more frustratingly- we’re
not talking a majority. No. Three individuals have repeatedly blocked this
going through, one claiming that it’s a “Great British
institution…[that] deserves to be defended against the propaganda and
exaggerations”. (1) I’m sorry, but I really am of the thought that the time for
wild animals to be used as entertainment in a circus setting is over. I
struggle to justify the existence of zoos to myself, let alone circuses that
have little if anything to do with conservation and the preservation of
species. Perhaps it was once the case that this was true, but it is now an
outdated practice and I’m not the only one to share this view.
There was a time not that
long ago, in early in the twentieth century, when the animal trade supplying
circuses and menageries entered a decline because it was replaced by the
entertainment that films could provide. And you’d think to some degree this
would have continued – what with the potential for HD and new filming
techniques to reform the way in which we view animals and allow us to observe
them in their natural habitats, in a more unobtrusive way. Is there really a
need to train animals for our entertainment? And what is it that still compels
us as a society to be drawn to a circus to watch animals perform? I just don’t
get it.
Coincidentally, this
report came after another which announced that the largest circus provider in
America, The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, declared it would
phase out the use of elephants in its shows, amidst growing public sentiment
against it. You’d think wouldn’t you, that with such emphasis placed on
conservation and the like, that this would have stopped years ago but there are
so many more instances like this one where animals are kept and used for
entertainment. It makes me shudder. I naively thought when first embarking on
this project 3 years ago now, that the commercial animal trade was long gone.
How wrong was I?!
Our relationship with
animals is such a complex one and in this blog I’ve really just written a gut
reaction to this news. It’s not well balanced or researched but highlights just
some of the issues I engage with when doing my research. There are so many
layers to a topic like this; you have to engage with the history, the legality,
the ethics….. the list goes on. Yet, however much I am at times horrified by
what I read, I am also fascinated and discovering the history of the exotic
animal trade has completely changed the way in which I view the British Empire
and its legacy.
(2)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/11453278/American-circus-will-end-elephant-acts-in-response-to-public-criticism.html
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