Animals in Entertainment

Overview

Animals have been used for human entertainment throughout history — from Roman gladiatorial fights to Victorian bear-baiting, from circus elephants to modern horse racing. Public attitudes toward animal entertainment have shifted dramatically over recent decades, with many forms once considered normal now banned in numerous jurisdictions.

The welfare issues across entertainment contexts share common themes: animals trained using fear and pain, deprived of natural behaviors, kept in conditions incompatible with their physical and psychological needs, and injured or killed in pursuit of human amusement. Understanding these issues helps advocates prioritize action and understand the trajectory of this area of animal welfare reform.

Circuses and Traveling Shows

🐘 Wild Animal Acts

Training wild animals — elephants, big cats, bears, primates — for circus performance typically relies on dominance methods: confinement, food deprivation, physical punishment, and the use of bull hooks, whips, and electric prods. Circuses that deny this are in the minority.

🚐 Traveling Confinement

Circus animals spend most of their lives in transit — in small trailers and temporary enclosures far below the minimum space requirements for licensed zoos. For elephants, this typically involves chains or tethering for most of the day when not performing.

📜 Legislative Progress

Over 40 countries have banned wild animal circuses, including the UK (2020), Mexico (2015), India (2009), Bolivia (2009), and many others. Many US states and cities have partial or complete bans. The trend is accelerating.

🎪 Human-Only Circuses

Cirque du Soleil demonstrated that profitable, world-class circus entertainment needs no animals. Human-only circuses have grown globally while animal circuses have declined, showing that market demand exists for animal-free entertainment.

Horse Racing

Horse racing is one of the most economically significant uses of animals in entertainment — a global industry worth over $300 billion. It is also one with well-documented welfare costs:

        Racing Welfare Statistics
        US fatalities: Approximately 2,000 thoroughbred racehorses die annually in the US from racing-related injuries — about 1.7 deaths per 1,000 starts
Musculoskeletal injuries: Racing at high speeds on hard surfaces causes stress fractures, tendon injuries, and "catastrophic breakdowns" — sudden fractures that typically require euthanasia
Drug use: Legal and illegal drug use in US racing is extensive. Drugs mask pain, allowing horses to race through injuries, accelerating breakdowns
Mental health: Racehorses are often kept in individual stalls for 22+ hours per day, deprived of social contact and pasture — conditions that cause stereotypic behaviors (cribbing, weaving, stall walking)
Slaughter pipeline: Horses that stop winning are often sold, eventually entering the slaughter pipeline to Canada or Mexico. The US does not have federally licensed horse slaughter facilities, but horses are exported for slaughter

      

Reform efforts include the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA), which established new federal oversight of US racing in 2022, including enhanced drug testing and track surface standards. The Kentucky Derby and other major races have improved their surface standards following high-profile fatalities.

Greyhound Racing

Greyhound racing has undergone one of the most dramatic declines of any animal entertainment industry:

US status: Greyhound racing is now banned in 43 US states, most recently Florida (2018, via ballot initiative). Only West Virginia still has active commercial racing. A decade ago, there were 50+ US tracks; now fewer than 10 remain nationally.
Injury rates: Documented injury rates in greyhound racing are high — one study found that approximately 1 in 5 greyhounds racing at Florida tracks sustained an injury per year.
"Wastage": Greyhounds not fast enough to race profitably are killed in large numbers. Before the Florida ban, advocates estimated 10,000+ greyhounds were killed annually in the US when they were no longer commercially viable.
Global trends: Australia (a major greyhound racing country) has seen ongoing scandal, including documented mass killing of "unviable" dogs and drug use. Several Australian states have considered bans following investigations.
Greyhound adoption: The growth of greyhound adoption organizations has both reduced post-racing killing and raised public awareness about racing conditions.

Rodeos

Rodeo is deeply embedded in Western US and South American culture, but faces growing welfare scrutiny:

Bull and bronco riding: "Flank straps" — tightened around the animal's abdomen — cause the bucking behavior that defines the event. The straps cause discomfort or pain. Electric prods are commonly used to provoke animals in chutes.
Calf roping: Calves are lassooed at full gallop and thrown to the ground. Injuries include neck trauma, broken legs, and internal injuries. The calves may be subjected to this multiple times per event.
Steer wrestling and bull riding: Similar injury risks apply across contact events. Veterinary care standards vary enormously between events.
Regulation variation: California has some of the strongest rodeo welfare laws in the US; many states have no specific rodeo welfare regulations. Animal welfare organizations have advocated for banning the flank strap and electric prods.
Cultural context: Rodeo advocates argue the events preserve ranching traditions and that modern rodeos have improved from historical practices. The cultural embeddedness of rodeo in some communities makes advocacy particularly challenging.

Bullfighting

Bullfighting is perhaps the most internationally controversial form of animal entertainment, involving the deliberate killing of bulls in public arenas:

🇪🇸 Spain

Spain remains the center of bullfighting culture. The industry kills approximately 40,000 bulls annually in Spanish arenas. However, attendance has declined dramatically — from over 3,000 bullfighting events in 1990 to fewer than 1,800 by 2015. Catalonia banned bullfighting in 2010 (later overturned by Spain's Constitutional Court).

🌎 Latin America

Bullfighting continues in Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, and Venezuela, though multiple cities and regions have implemented bans. Colombia's Constitutional Court ruled in 2017 that municipalities could ban it; many have since done so.

🇵🇹 Portugal

Portuguese bullfighting differs — bulls are not killed in the ring (though they are killed afterward). The Portuguese approach is sometimes offered as a "welfare improvement," but the bull still experiences the full spectacle, including lance wounds, before being killed privately.

📉 Declining Support

Spanish polls consistently show majority opposition to bullfighting, particularly among younger people. EU agricultural subsidies for bullfighting were ended in 2013 under pressure from animal welfare advocates. The industry is in demographic decline.

Cockfighting and Dogfighting

Cockfighting and dogfighting are illegal in all 50 US states and most countries, but persist globally:

Cockfighting: Estimated to involve tens of millions of birds globally. Legal in some US territories and widely practiced in parts of Asia, Latin America, and Africa. Birds are fitted with blades or spurs and fight to the death or serious injury.
Dogfighting: Involves training dogs — predominantly pit bull breeds — for combat using systematic cruelty, including animal baiting, starvation, and abuse. Linked to other forms of criminal activity.
Enforcement challenges: These activities are often conducted clandestinely with strong community networks that resist law enforcement.
HSUS campaigns: The Humane Society of the United States has extensive programs targeting both cockfighting and dogfighting, including working with law enforcement and pushing for stronger federal penalties.

Elephant Tourism

Elephant riding and performance tourism in Southeast Asia represents a significant but often misunderstood welfare issue:

An estimated 3,000–4,000 Asian elephants are held in captive tourism operations, primarily in Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos
The training method traditionally used — "phajaan" or "crushing" — involves separating calves from mothers, confining them in small spaces, and using pain to break their resistance to human handling
Even post-phajaan, elephants carrying tourists face ongoing welfare issues: chains when not working, inadequate food and water, overwork, and foot problems from hard surfaces
Sanctuaries offering "ethical elephant experiences" (observation only, no riding) have grown significantly, demonstrating that elephant tourism can be redesigned for welfare
COVID-19 decimated elephant tourism, stranding many elephants whose owners could no longer afford to feed them — highlighting the economic fragility of the model

What You Can Do

❌ Boycott Animal Entertainment

Refuse to attend circuses with wild animals, elephant rides, bullfights, or other events where animals suffer. Consumer boycotts have directly contributed to industry decline in multiple entertainment categories.

📢 Advocacy

Support legislation banning wild animal circuses in your jurisdiction. Contact your representatives about greyhound racing bans, rodeo welfare regulations, and horse racing reform legislation.

🐕 Adopt Retired Greyhounds

Greyhound adoption organizations give retired racers a second life. Adopting reduces the demand for new racing dogs and raises awareness about racing conditions.

💰 Support Animal Welfare Organizations

Humane Society International and Four Paws work globally on entertainment animal welfare. Local circus-monitoring organizations also do important watchdog work.