Letters to the Editor: 07.24.97

Animal Cruelty

Sagaponack

July 18, 1997

To The Editor,

I am extremely disappointed that the circus is coming to Southampton. Doesn't everybody know that by attending they are making a personal contribution to animal cruelty? I hope if they do, they won't go!

It's easy to imagine that lions, tigers, bears, and elephants that perform in the circus have been trained to do their tricks the way a dog can be trained, by repetitive sessions rewarded with treats and praise. Sadly, it doesn't happen this way because there is a basic difference between wild animals and the domestic ones most of us know.

Dogs, cats, and farm animals (domestic animals) have evolved into creatures that choose to interact with humans, as a result of 100,000 years of natural selection. During this period, they have lived in close proximity with humans and have adapted their lives so that they, quite happily, rely on us for room and board and, in exchange, offer us protection, affection, and various forms of labor.

The wild animals in the circus have been captured and removed from habitats distant from humans. There has been no process of selection, no getting to know each other over thousands of years. Without the benefit of the domestic relationship, they have no interest in pleasing us. So the praise that motivates the dog to learn, once he understands what is being asked of him, has little or no effect on them. These animals do, however, understand dominance, fear, and pain and they will learn "tricks" in order to survive.

If you think about it, the paraphernalia of the circus - the small cages, the elephant's shackles, the bear's muzzle, the lion trainer's whip - tell a story we have somehow been brainwashed into overlooking.

To an audience unaware of the cruelty involved in training, the circus seems wondrous. Everything we see is exciting because it's out of the ordinary. All the performers, the animals, the acrobats, the clowns, take us into a world that's very different from the one we live in day to day, and it's happening right here in front of us - live! But, remember, the acrobats and clowns have a choice. They don't have to work for the circus. The animals don't have a choice. They are slaves, living their entire lives in cages, forced to submit to masters who terrify and punish them into behaviors entirely foreign to their nature.

These animals have miserable lives. When they aren't being trained, they are held in chains or cages in which they travel the rest of each year. Death is their only freedom. In an educated community, such as ours, this degree of inhumanity should not be tolerated!

Sincerely,

CLAY D. DILWORTH

Misery Of Animals

East Hampton

July 22, 1997

Dear Editor:

How can people not be aware of the misery of circus animals? As Albert Schweitzer said, "The time will come when public opinion will no longer tolerate amusements based on the mistreatment and killing of animals. The time will come, but when?"

Sincerely,

PEGGY WATSON

Proud To Be Resident

East Hampton

July 15, 1997

To The Editor,

I've been meaning to write this letter for a long time now, and it has to do with the nomenclature of my Main Beach sticker which currently reads: Nonresident.

After living in East Hampton, albeit the town, not the village, for about 11 years, I do consider myself a resident, not a nonresident. I'm proud to be a resident and do take offense to the label given to me.

May I suggest to the decision-making committee in charge of beach stickers for East Hampton the following:

Village people = village resident.

Town people = town resident.

Seems simple to me, or is that simplicity a problem?

For the future, if stickers were sold to "outsiders" perhaps then you could use the nonresident stickers for them.

JULIAN W. KNASTER

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