The use of wild animals in circuses has declined dramatically under public and legal pressure. However, the practice persists globally and the remaining animals face significant welfare challenges.
Circus animals — even in countries where they remain legal — face welfare challenges fundamentally tied to the travelling nature of the industry. Repeated loading and unloading into transport vehicles, performance in unfamiliar environments, crowd noise and lighting, and confinement in temporary enclosures between performances all create chronic welfare problems. Training for complex unnatural performances historically relied on negative reinforcement and punishment. Even where positive training methods are now used, the fundamental mismatch between the needs of large wild animals and the constraints of circus life cannot be overcome. Domestic circus animals face similar transport-related stress even when otherwise well-managed.