As for the debate about circuses, an old friend of mine worked as a stage hand for Ringling for a year or two and I got to see their holding areas after their show when they were in my city. (I did not see the show itself). The conditions are what I would describe as deplorable. There were five female Asian elephants as I recall, each was separated from the other (though within sight), each was chained to a pole with hay on the cement convention center floor and a hotwire barrier around. The dozen or so tigers were all in small rolling cages and this is how they lived. I had not been to the circus since I was a child but after seeing this I would never support circuses with animals.
