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ShareThe young and the adult enjoy watching them, and their tricks, equally. But the animals at Rambo Circus, camping on theReclamation Ground, Bandra (West), are a miserable lot. Most of them are either sick, or have grievous injuries. And yet, they are allegedly forced to perform at the circus.
The matter came to light when a team from the Plant and Animal Welfare Society (PAWS), Mumbai, comprising eight volunteers conducted a surprise check at the circus in the last week of October. The circus has four elephants, eight horses, 11 dogs, five parrots, including three cockatoos, and two macaws. "We found all the animals in very bad shape. The circus management failed to produce any record of vaccination or health check-up," said Sunish Subramanian, founder secretary of PAWS, Mumbai.
All four female elephants at the circus were found to have serious skin infections. One of them has a nail infection that dates back to 2004.
"The manager of the circus claimed that the elephant was being treated by a Kerala-based veterinarian, who is consulted regularly over telephone," Subramanian said. He pointed out that one of the elephants was limping and the management was aware about the reason.
The eight horses too were found in sorry state, some of them suffering from severe leg injuries. According to the observations made by the PAWS volunteers, the horses were weak and malnourished; the elephants showed symptoms of hyperkeratosis of skin (thickening of the outer layer), infective scaling and foot rot.
"We have submitted a detailed report on the condition of the animals to the Central Zoo Authority (CZA). Now, it is up to them to take appropriate action," Subramanian said.
Maneka Gandhi, founder of People For Animals, said, "All animals should be removed from circus. It is being done worldwide. Brazil has already banned the use of animal. It should be done in India too. Instead of using voiceless animals, human skills, like acrobatics, should be exhibited in circus."
Sujit Dilip, owner of Rambo Circus, denied the allegations. "We have veterinarians conducting regular medical check-ups on the animals," he said, adding that only two of the four elephants were performing in the shows. The rest of the animals were under medical care.
