FREE ESSAY ON CIRCUS WORLD

CIRCUS WORLD

Finally, after what seemed like a year in the car, we were there. I was ready to get out
and see this Circus Museum that my mom had always talked about. We spent another day
making the great trek from our car to the entrance. I looked up at the old man selling
tickets, but it was not an old man, it was a clown! This place may have some promise
after all. The gate opened and I walked through. I could smell the musk of the animals,
the sweetness of the cotton candy, and the salty aroma of the popcorn all in one whiff of
the air. We walked around for a while on the gritty orange sand. This is just like the
stuff they have on the ground of a real circus! 
"Mom, I wanna see the elephants!"
"Soon enough, Joshua." 
After the longest "soon enough" of my life, we went to the elephant show. It was so
great! There was a tall gateway into an unlit corridor. Suddenly, a man in a bright red
suit with big long tails came running out. Behind him was what seemed like thousands of
lumbering gray beasts. There was something beautiful and graceful about the way their
giant snouts swayed to-and-frow. The trainer got them to do anything that he wanted just
by saying it. The elephants even stood up on their hind legs and jumped in the air. I
loved the way they looked, so natural and happy.
The rest of the day is just a blur from me; erased by the passing of time. All that I
remember was right when I excitedly bounced into the car, I turned to my mom and simply
stated, "Elephants are my favorite animal, Mommy!"
Thirteen years of my life shot by. I learned so much more about elephants causing me to
fall even further in love with them. I also learned many things about them, which are not
so great. I learned that their numbers in the wild were dwindling down to a near
nonexistence. Also, I saw the atrocities they were put through to get them to do those
"great tricks." 
I had gone to a percussion camp for two weeks in Ohio, so when my parents picked me up,
we (more they) decided we would stop at the Circus World Museum on the way home.
Everything was as I remembered it, except not nearly as exciting. We walked around and
looked at everything. It all seemed sort of old and run down with this strange musty
smell everywhere. I was very bored.
Then we got to the elephants. This could be fun. I could not believe what I was seeing. I
don't remember those chains. At the first look at their bindings I my heart immediately
sank and I got dizzy. The elephants could only move about two feet in any direction. I
turned and noticed the five-year-old child watching and poking the poor defenseless
elephants. That just made me sicker because I could remember doing the same thing just
thirteen short years ago.
" I can't stand to see this Mom. Let's go." She did not even look at me. We continued to
watch the elephant show. I could not look away from that poor elephant being poked by the
little me.
"That's it folks! Does anyone have any questions?" Suddenly my controversial mind went
into overdrive. "Yes, sir, what is your question?" I looked around and realized she was
talking to me.
"I was just wondering how you feel about the issue of cruelty in the training of
performing animals. Also, how would you like being shocked by a cattle prod?" I felt a
huge tug on my arm and I was suddenly in the car heading home.
"Elephants are still my favorite animal."
It is so amazing how much better the world looked when I was five. I did not see the pain
the poor animal was going through. Even though I feel terrible when I think of the
treatment of the elephants, I am glad I know about it because I am now an active advocate
of animal rights and will not rest until circus animal training is ended.