Animals as a source of entertainment

this is something very common in circuses and TV shows where you see a tiger jumping through a flaming hoop or a bear playing the trumpet or even a monkey serving tea or a kangaroo boking with a man. I don't need to say that these behaviours are completely unnatural and forced upon the animals by their greedy and money driven owners. It is amazing the amount of money one can make by simply beating a chimp until it smiles or whipping a lion until it lays down and lets you cuddle with him. Well it is not as simple as that.

To teach a dog you can use the reward system where a dog tries to follow your orders in order to get a reward but that is because the dog and the human have been together since the very early stages of society and they have always been used not only as a tool but as an animal companion and a regular member of society in many cities and nations but it is different with wild animals, they fear people and they are not interested in the rewards you can give them since all they want to do is run away as far as possible. The way to teach them is to break them, this can be seen in the series of Game of Thrones and it is what Ramsey did to Theon Greyjoy. An example of how trainers break bears and get them to do what they want them to do is as follows: first the mother and the cub are separated and put in separate cages, the "trainer" would pull the teeth and claws out form the cub which cries in pain and eventually passes out due to the blood lose. The mother witness the horror and goes through so much stress and emotional pain that breaks.

Once an animal or even a human is broken they lose the will to thrive and fight for their lives, they loose what makes them or us animals. Now the trainer can teach the bears how to play the trumpet or how to clap without the fear of the bear killing the trainer because they have gone to a state past fear and it is hard to explain. I was thinking about putting a video but the sensible content wouldn't be appropriate.

It is truly amazing how people can turn to savageries just for the money involved and this shows that the world is not ruled by the morality of the good but by the greed of the bad.

Activities like the one outlined usually take place in the Siberian region in Russia where the climate and the low density of people allows the bears to thrive and this applies to every animal specially in regions around the tropic of Cancer and Capricorn like India, Thailand, Brazil... people keep taking advantage of both the abundance of wildlife in these regions and the problems of these regions regarding their economic position and their access to resources.

link to the picture: http://dingo.care2.com/pictures/c2c/share/35/359/979/3597987_370.jpg

This shows how much money is involved in the animal industry and what is put in this blog is just the tiniest of samples of everything that actually goes around. My question is, what gives us the right to buy or sell everything? Why can we put a price tag on anything just because the regulations is a country are just not up to date? This undeveloped countries with difficult access to resources, medicine and very little tertiary economic activities turn to this as a source of money and some of the activities undertaken are truly heartless.

Thailand and animal abuse:

As I said, now I will write about poaching and animal trafficking, especially the illegal activities taking place in Thailand which is one of the most notable regions when it comes to this issue. Illegal trade involving animals can be seen everywhere from hand bags made out of crocodile skin to rucks made from leopard or tiger skin. Wild animal trade from Thailand feeds from the tourists who buy a pretty crocodile skin purse sold in the streets or at the beach. Another issue which is also part of the animal trafficking is the trading of live animals with Europe where they are sold as rare and exotic rainforest creatures for a profit. Finally the third issue related to Thailand is probably the most present one due to lack of regulation, the use of animal performances is a business that only requires an animal to be beaten till it does what you want it to do and then you can start charging money to curious tourists who come and watch your monkey cycle or serve a cup of tea.

The trading of skins, ivory, turtle shells… comes from the illegal poaching taking place in the dense rainforest where the regulation of these activities is very hard. Another reason for the selling of these products such as rugs or handbags is that they are very cheap to produce and can be sold at a relatively high price because they are made from real tiger skin for example. All this poaching of tigers, elephants, turtles and crocodiles lead to near extinction for this species and then organizations and even the Thai government would invest great sums of money trying to save these animals which keep getting killed as their numbers grow due to this money. It is all a vicious circle which can only be cut if the poaching business is harshly regulated not only by the Thai government but by all the nations close to this region like India, China and Philippines.

The trading of live animals to Europe affects mainly young animals such a small crocodiles, otters, baby tigers or leopards... they are usually shipped hidden with other products such as livestock. European companies involved in the animal trade would buy them and sell them for a substantial profit in pet shops where the government performs very little inspections. A particularly easy animal to trade is exotic fish from the Thai coasts as it can be taken and put into plastic bags and the just privately shipped as it is not bulky to carry a few plastic bags.

The final issue which is the one I am most concerned about would be the use of animals as a form of entertainment which will be discussed in a separate post. 

Links to the pictures´source:

http://www.livemint.com/rf/Image-621x414/LiveMint/Period1/2012/12/25/Photos/000_Hkg982160--621x414.jpg

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/content/dam/news/2016/02/26/livetrade/02liveanimaltrade.adapt.1900.1.jpg