Death of Circus Tiger Triggers Debate on Ending Animal Performances

A circus tiger escaped on September 6 during performance at an outdoor circus in Xinxiang, Central China’s Henan Province. Next morning, the tiger was captured by local police, but died during transfer to a local zoo, reported news portal www.cntv.cn. Soon afterwards, the provincial forestry authorities sent investigators to probe the case.

In a September 10 editorial, Shanghai-based news portal The Paper noted that netizens are mainly debating whether animal performance should continue in the country. 

Animal performances have been in decline in recent years: some countries started a ban several years ago, and within China, the Guangzhou Zoo canceled animal performances, which it had been holding for 24 years. Animal protection organizations are putting on increasing opposition to animal performance, the editorial noted. Against this context, the latest event delivers a blow to this dying industry. 

The vested interests and conflict of concepts mean that there is no “one-size-fits-all” answer to whether the performances should continue. But given its target audiences have better alternatives to know about animals and entertain themselves, and have increasingly taken up the animal protection awareness, the desire to see animals perform is set to cool down and go out of business, argued the editorial.

With the market for animal performances shrinking and in a downward spiral, captive animals could face deteriorating living conditions and safety guarantees. A trend is that some private circus performances have moved to counties and towns, where the costs are low and animal protection awareness is inadequate, increasing safety incidents. 

The portal then urged animal performances to be transformed and improves. At present, the regulators should pay attention to safety management during the sector's transition, and find a suitable home for those "foster" animals. 

And there should be a clearer direction at the legal level. While the Ministry of Housing and Construction has long stopped animal performances in zoos, there is still no explicit requirement for animal performances in circuses, it argued.