The use of wild animals in circuses causes welfare harm through training methods, transport, housing, and the requirement to perform unnatural behaviours. Most European countries have now restricted or banned wild animal circuses.
Circus animals live lives profoundly mismatched with their biological needs. Species with large natural ranges are confined in transport vehicles and temporary enclosures for most of their lives. Training methods that produce spectacular performances often involve punishment-based techniques that cause fear and pain. The requirement to perform unnatural behaviours — bears on bicycles, tigers jumping through hoops — requires overcoming strong natural fear responses through force or threat. Even where training is reward-based, the fundamental welfare problem of confinement and inability to express natural behaviour remains.