There was a lot that went on this week, some of it funny, some of it not so much. Bear with me… (I could bitch-slap myself for that one.)
At “Bears On Ice” in Russia this week, a five-year-old ice-skating bear, being righteously pissed off because he was being forced to be an ice-skating bear, lost it and went postal on his trainer, killing him. And, once more, all the TV talking heads are shocked. Really? Shocked? What shocks me is that when something like this happens – over and over again – we still don’t get that wild animals do not belong on fucking ice skates, or dressed in tutus standing on their heads, or jumping through hoops of fire for our fucking amusement. I’d like to dress these trainers in tutus, put them in ice skates and jump their asses through hoops of fire.
To me, the tragedy here isn’t that the trainer was killed. That was an unfortunate consequence of his chosen actions. The real tragedy is that after displaying the natural response any wild animal would display in defending itself, this bear was killed -- because he was a wild animal! No shit! If I had my way these heroic, majestic creatures would be given a fucking Medal of Honor when this happens for standing up for all the other innocent, helpless animals being tortured in these freak shows so somebody can make a buck.
And while I’m at it (and I seem to be on a roll here), there wouldn’t even be circus animals if people didn’t shell out money in support of these atrocities. What the hell kind of message does it send to kids to take them to watch animals be tormented like this?
Bullfights – same thing. I always root for the bull. I root for the bulls during those crazy-ass bull runs every year, too, and actually cheer when one of those testosterone-driven idiots gets themselves gored. (Not to rag on the guys here, but I’ve yet to see an estrogen-driven idiot in one of these exhibitions.)
Wild animals belong in the wild. Not suffering in a show so that someone's cotton-candied-faced little darling can partake in this barbaric form of “entertainment.” And yes I, too, was once someone's cotton-candied-faced little darling who was taken to the circus, but I'm older than dirt and those were the dark ages. We were ignorant of the beatings and the chains and all the other horrors these animals suffer for our benefit. We know better now. We have no excuse.
Wow… Three uses of the F-word in one post. That’s a personal best