Training is the New Torture
When we attend circuses or zoos to see all the beautiful animals and admire them we think of just that. We gaze at their beauty falling more in love with the animals themselves. Little do we know that attending zoos or circuses is actually hurting the animals. We see the caged animal calm and docile, that is not how they are born to act in the wild. While we are stuck gazing at the beautiful animals we rarely consider how they got to be so docile. Zoo and circus animals are trained using abusive tactics to become that docile. Elephants are broken to perform a certain way for the circuses. If we thought of going to see broken animals in a show, instead of beautiful majestic creatures, it would not be an enjoyable show.
To most training is thought of in a positive light. For instance, when you train a dog you positively reinforce them to go to the bathroom outside. Dog trainers stand behind the idea of positive reinforcement. They explain it as, “trainers who use positive reinforcement use rewards to encourage the dog to repeat a specific behavior. Rewards can be treats, affection or a toy. As soon as the dog does the desired behavior, the reward needs to be given” (Jorgensen 2015). The dog trainers praise the dog with love and affection when they do something correctly. With elephants training is extremely negative all the time. Owners bring a wild animal into the domestic lifestyle, the elephants are not performing any wrong behavior within their nature. Even when the Elephant correctly performs a trick they are not praised. Elephants are only punished when not performing correctly. Elephant trainers shine a whole new light on the term training.
In order to hold a successful circus show or zoo the elephants have to endure an extensive amount of pain and suffering. If elephants have to go through all that pain to be considered “trained” for the shows they are not being trained they are being tortured. They are taken away from their homeland, ripped from their mothers, isolated, and physically injured. Those are forms of torture to get the animals to perform the way the circus or zoos want them to perform. Howard Chua-Eoan comments on the training in his article The Elephants Take A Bow, “What more and more people saw as the years went by– was the use of bullhooks. To keep the elephants marching in single file up to the park, trainers whacked them with the ugly metal talons” (Chua-Eoan 2015). This torture does not benefit the animal or make the animal a better elephant in any way shape or form, it in fact injures the elephants. By training, or torturing the animals in this way it takes away from what makes them beautiful and what we admire so much, their habitat, compassion, wild, and free animals.
Recently the owner of the Ringling Bros., Kenneth Feld, released the elephants would be eliminated from all circus shows by 2018. Them removing the acts is a way of them acknowledging the wrong they have done to these innocent animals. When Feld was asked about the removal this was his comment, “When we did so, we knew we would play a critical role in saving the endangered Asian elephants for future generations, given how few Asian elephants are left in the wild. …This decision was not easy, but it is in the best interest of our company, our elephants and our customers” (Jones 2015). From his statement above, Kenneth Feld shows remorse for the shrinking elephant population. His comment hints that the elephants from the show die from being “trained”, contributing the the endangered elephants.
Many come to these zoos and circuses for a happy and peaceful outing. Supporting these organizations are only hurting the animals which we go to admire. Little do we know the torture and abuse these animals are put through just to benefit the zoo or circus owners. The people that can recognize what trauma the animals are put through are the ones that realize the misuse of the word; when the owners say they “train” the animals, it can be better said as torturing. Admiring elephants when they are forcibly in an environment that is not natural is not healthy for the elephants. What is better, is to admire the animal when it is in a healthy, non-abusive, and loved environment, where they are happy, in the wild.
Works Cited
Chua-Eoan, Howard. “The Elephants Take A Bow.” Bloomberg Businessweek 1 Mar. 2015. Print.
Jones, Charisse. “Ringling Bros. Eliminating Elephant Acts.” USA Today. Gannett, 5 Mar. 2015. Web. 25 Mar. 2015.
Jorgenson, Amy. “Positive Reinforcement & Negative Reinforcement for Dog Training.” Dog Care. Web. 25 Mar. 2015.
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Counterintuitive Spring 2024 
Still in the process of adding quotations on the actual torture the elephants face. Feedback requested.
Feedback provided. —DSH
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I couldn’t be happier about our feedback relationship, skyblue.
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This is another runon (comma splice) of the sort I pointed out to you earlier this week:
Two sentences jammed together, spliced with a comma. Illegal.
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Regarding your quotes, they both offer their own challenges, don’t they?
Dog Quote: I completely endorse your using a dog trainer to illustrate something you probably can’t get an elephant trainer to admit. But this particular quote is really chilling, don’t you think, skyblue?
Calling an electric shock a “positive” reinforcement is such a warped thing to say! I positively reinforce my dog’s good behavior with a happy talk, petting, and maybe a small treat. Apparently Jorgensen never considers this technique. He either withholds something desirable (negative reinforcement), or adds something horrible (positive reinforcement). If this is the model the elephant community uses, it really does sound like torture.
But it requires readers like me to radically rethink the meaning of “positive.” See the challenge? You can make it work very effectively if you rise to the opportunity.
Ringling Quote: Too bad for you Ringling never acknowledges they were mistreating animals. They only say that taking some elephants from the wild has reduced their population. Of course they will die in captivity once they’re “broken,” but you seem to claim Ringling admits they were “killing” animals, which is quite different. I think you’re drawing too big a conclusion.
It’s still a useful quote. Just don’t try to fool your readers.
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Happy to help as often as you like, provided you keep asking specific questions.
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I’m confused with how to rework the dog quote into something I can use? feedback requested.
Feedback provided. —DSH
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A couple of steps might be needed, skyblue, but the technique could be very effective.
A quick Google search for “positive reinforcement to train elephants” yielded several articles from the Maryland Zoo, from Compassionate Aid International, from SeaWorld, etc., all bragging that they use “positive reinforcement” to train their animals.
https://www.google.com/search?q=positive+reinforcement+to+train+elephants&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8
The Maryland Zoo describes its technique:
SeaWorld says something similar:
But they don’t specifically say that the verbal reinforcement is the ONLY reinforcement technique. They also don’t say, unlike The Maryland Zoo that DOES say, that punishment is never used.
Now, we know from your Jorgensen quote that different people mean very different techniques when they say “positive reinforcement.” Even if the Maryland Zoo and SeaWorld explanations are completely innocent, and they are certainly the most common and logical interpretations, we still have to accept that when the dog trainer Jorgensen says “positive reinforcement, he means giving the dog electric shocks when it “misbehaves,” which any normal person would call NEGATIVE reinforcement.
So, even if Ringling were to insist they use positive reinforcement, using his definition, they might still be torturing their animals. See?
I hope you’ve learned three things from this interaction, skyblue:
1. There are very easy but indirect ways to use research to support your argument.
2. Searching for CIRCUS ANIMAL ABUSE yields only a fraction of what’s useful.
3. If you read enough sources, even those that don’t directly support your thesis, you find arguments that are very beneficial.
May I cite this example in class for the benefit of your classmates?
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Thank you so much for your time and input, feel free to cite this example any time!
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