While animal protection advocates applaud legal maneuvers to ban four-legged performers from Mexican circus shows, the new taboos raise some unforeseen issues regarding the future fate of an estimated 2,500 creatures kept by itinerant big top troupes that travel the national circuit.
Walter Fuentes Gazca, owner-operator of the Circo Unión string now playing at lakeside, has plenty to say on the topic. Interviewed by Reporter this week, he expressed outrage at short-sighted federal legislators who last month passed an initiative outlawing the use of wild beasts in circus shows without fully exploring the implications of the law.
“This law was approved solely for political gains,” he insists. “It has no provisions for alternative placements and the responsibilities of caring for retired circus animals.”
In his view, the national legislation – and more draconian measures enacted by a number of state and municipal governments that prohibit even domestic animals from the circus ring – has only served to “demonize” circuses, causing falling attendance, financial losses and inevitable staff lay-offs.
He points out most of the country’s circus animals are born and raised in captivity. “You can’t qualify them as ‘wild’ animals. They are incapable of surviving in their so-called ‘natural’ habitat. Their real habitat is Mexico and the circus grounds where they live and interact with humans.”
Fuentes comes from a long line of circus folks he labels as the Fuentes Gazca dynasty. Founded in Ayutla, Jalisco back in 1938, Circo Unión has expanded over generations to operate more than 20 strings that roam town-to-town across the nation.
The one-time performer of heart-stopping motorcycle stunts now remains behinds the scenes as manager and show time announcer. In his booming ringmaster’s voice, he proudly introduces his sons Luis, the handsome acrobatic star of the show, and Walter, King of Clowns. The two young men dominate the performance, appearing in collaboration with an acrobatic back-up man, an aerialist, a pair of jugglers and a magician.
While the Unión show is clearly following the trend toward more people performers, the company still travels with an elephant and a trio of dromedaries that perform in the show along with a couple of tigers, two ponies, and a llama employed strictly for exhibition.
The 35-year-old elephant going by the stage name Papaya has been part of the clan most of her life. She is trotted out at intermission to pose with kids on her back for photo ops captured on cell phones by grown-ups in the audience, at 100 pesos a pop. She reappears at the opening of the second act with a few simple tricks: nodding yes in answer to silly questions, balancing on a metal stool for a quick spin with all four feet off the ground, and finally picking up the stool with her truck to haul it off stage.
The dromedaries come out to do some laps around the ring in what Fuentes calls a “training demonstration.” The highlight is the short interlude when kids in the audience are invited to get out of their seats to feed carrot treats to one of the humped beasts.
To this reporter, it all seems quite harmless. Inside and outside the tent, there are no apparent signs that the animals are abused or unhealthy. Handlers act gently, showing genuine concern for their well-being.
Nonetheless, the Guadalajara activist group Justicia y Dignidad Animal put up a Facebook posting accusing the circus of cruelty, slavery and keeping the creatures in deplorable conditions. And the Chapala police station took a series of frantic calls from a local expatriate claiming an elephant standing outside the grounds wasn’t getting any shade, food or water. It happened to be the plastic model employed as a promotional tool.
As a whole, circus owners like Fuentes are in favor of laws against animal cruelty. It’s the extreme postures and outright hypocrisies that get under their skin.
“Why does of the city of Zapopan bar me from putting on a pony act at the same time it allows Cirque de Soleil to book the horse spectacle
Cavalia-Odysseo?” he wonders grumpily.
And beyond that, what’s in the cards for the creatures that will be forced to adapt to life outside circus forums? A case in point may be the tragic death of Richard Meleski, the U.S. founder-owner of Tulum Monkey Sanctuary in Quintana Roo who was trampled to death last October by a camel put under his care by a circus owner confronted by limited options to find it a new home.