A 'Cruelty-Free' Circus Replaced Animals with Holograms - Slashdot

Posted by EditorDavid

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  Audiences staying away in droves.
  • Well maybe they can fill the stands with holographic projections of customers. On the flip side not having to feed an actual elephant or lion probably saves a hell of lot on operating costs. They might be profitable with a smaller crowd. If the clowns get too expensive there's no reason you couldn't get a hologram replacement there as well.
    
    It'd be a pretty surreal experience to go to a completely holographic circus where you're the only real thing there. Maybe even worth the price of admission.

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      Agreed on all points. It reminds me of the robot audiences the Korean baseballers installed during the Cov. I haven't heard anything about it lately.

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    Not really. Circuses are more than animals. People have gone happily to circuses even when animals are removed completely.

    Even now for this particular circus all the good seats are already sold out for the weekday shows in 2 weeks, and the weekend shows are sold out completely.

    So as usual Slashdotters don't understand normal people in the slightest.

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      I can't even remember the last circus I went to that had performing animals - not sure if I've ever seen one. It's been a couple of decades now that the main spectacles of circuses has been acrobats, clowns (slaptstick acrobats), and various types of stunts/daredevils. All human.

      I think the only reason I know about the role animals have played in circuses is cultural history...

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      I'm all for not keeping animals in the shitty conditions they likely were kept in while in traveling circuses but honestly as a kid they were the only part I was ever interested in and I doubt a holographic tiger or elephant will be any where near as compelling as the real thing.

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      But they need to rise to the level of Cirque du Soleil in order to attract audiences.

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        Or, adjusting prices accordingly. Once when my adult kids were in town, we were looking for something to do. A small, local circuit outfit called Circus Vargas happened to be passing through. Prices are perhaps a third or quarter of CdS. We were wary, but, hey, the price was right. We could leave if we didn't like it without feeling too much put out.

        It starts and the first thing the entire cast does is come out singing and doing simple dance steps. I remember thinking, "Are these rejects from high school mu

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          I need a "their" to "they're" translator instead of a spell-checker.

• You can be kind to animals without removing them. Think if we took this approach every time? How many would be gone? Anyone ever go to the San Diego Wild Animal Park? They do amazing work there and the animals are both rare and live cruel free lives.

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    There are some people that would consider animal parks, zoos, etc. just as much a form of cruelty though. You've even got butters that consider keeping a pet as animal cruelty.

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      Yeah I can see how someone could view a cat or dog for example bread for human companionship as a form of cruelty. It's an interesting question that I never really considered before.

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        All dog breeds are have been bread for human companionship over several millennia which is why they're dogs. To a lesser degree the same is true of cats or any other animal that's been domesticated. The less useful breeds were eradicated by force or selective breeding.
        
        Stray dogs will instinctively seek out humans for help and we'll give it to them. Even homeless people in the worst circumstances will still recognize something more hopeless than themselves and take it in and care for it. There's a lot of

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        For the most part though, it isn't. But then there are the munchkin cats that are bred for deformities that cause problems down the line and result quite often in most of the litters being dead on birth (or however you want to call that). Same with pugs being bred for deformed noses with no real use. But most of the full sized breeds don't have major issues as they closer to the 'base dog' or 'base cat'.

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    Agree for the wild parks, but circus cannot be made ok. Animals there live permanently in cages or small dens when they are not performing. Circus are nomadic by nature, animals travel long distance in cages by road. Also cruel treatments like de-clawing are common. Then, there is the sensitive topic of what you have to do to them so they "perform" according to the script.

    Since the 2010s, legislation is changing around to world to limit or entirely prohibit the use of wild animals or all animals in circus.

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      My mistake, the last link above is from the ANTI-circus association.

• Theater owners are having trouble getting people to go back to theaters to see movies now that you can watch them in the comfort of your own home. Why would anyone think that virtual circuses are worth going to?

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    No they aren't. Only in under-invested American cinemas is there any kind of issue. Around most of the world cinemas are actively expanding to keep up with demand.

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    I reduced my movie theater attendance after lobby gunshots from an armed robbery during one movie, and accidentally hearing on a VHF receiver, police radio from an armed robbery with staff locked in a back room at another local multiplex cinema. This is not even regarded as an especially dangerous area.

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      Sounds more suspenseful than anything they're showing in the theater itself. Where can I get tickets?

• Going to see a circus in the flesh I get to smell the animals, feel the heat and the thumps/... through my seat and feet. I will feel that I am in the presence of large, powerful animals. This will not do that. Might as well stay at home and watch it on TV.

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    Circuses have more than animals. Elephants and bad smells can be found at the zoo. People have always been more interesting than circus animals.

    • Re: What is the point of going ?

      If you count "hilarious" clown slapstick and acrobat acts doing routines that were dated when Billy Smart was a bit then yeah, really interesting.

• I always thought the appeal of those attractions was to show off what kind of training you can do with these animals? And that the lion tamer risked his life because these are real lions who can really maim him if they so please but he is the "king of the jungle"?

  Did I miss something? Or am I just too old to understand the idea?

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    Came here to say exactly this. If these aren't real animals, what's the point for the "animal acts" at all?

    If you can't do them with real animals in a humane manner, just remove them completely from the show.

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    Yeah, well now OSHA requires the tamers to be armored. And they have to get the animals to sign waivers, so it isn't worth the bother any more.

• for the same kind of people: aka IGNORANTS.

  That an animal is in a circus DOES NOT IMPLY that it suffers cruelty.

  Having a dog and kicking it in your home, that IS cruelty.

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    In fact it implies it very strongly, because the vast majority of circus animals are mistreated.

    So to be clear, only kicking your own dog in your own home is animal abuse? Or is there a list somewhere that you refer to in order to determine what is or isn't?

  • Circuses are inherently cruel to the traditional circus animals because they confine them to far, far less space than they require to be happy. Elephants and lions have quite large territories... elephants don't enjoy being chained in place when not training or performing, and the training techniques are generally along the lines of 'do this or I inflict pain on you'. Lions don't like to spend their lives in small cages.

    Trained dogs? Sure, dogs can be happy doing tricks, and all they really need to thrive is socialization and exercise, and they're happy to do that with human owners.

    Generally speaking... if you have interacted with animals in a capacity where you're not using them for food or labor you pretty quickly pick up on the fact that even something as small as a field mouse can have a distinct personality and obviously has similar drives and emotional states to ours - I consider this completely beyond debate for mammals. Birds can be quite clever but they're distinct enough from us I think there is room for argument about the qualitative aspects of their minds... that we'll probably never answer.

    I'm still an omnivore, I still eat meat, but... a traditional circus is just animal cruelty set to music with a trapeze act for an intermission.

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      Horses don't like being confined either but humans have been confining them to stables for millennia and its universally accepted. And the horse comparison is apt- because elephants were historically used in place / in addition to horses as mounts in various parts of the world, so human-elephant husbandry is actually an ancient practice.

      What's never discussed in the push to remove animals from circuses is that for decades circuses have bred elephants, lions, and whatnot. And lest it needs reminding that man

• That sounds boring as shit.

  Holographic animals, whoopdeedoo.

  On the bright side, however, at least I get to sit in a crowd of half-drunken goobers throwing food at anything that doesn't please them.

  Yeah...I'll have a go at the 'circus' right after I finish watching this paint dry.

• "Holograms have rights too!"
• Part of the circus experience is riding the elephants, smelling the horses, fumes from the sphere moto cyclers, fear a tiger might escape... I would rather sit home and watch youtube than pay for this pointless "hologram" nonsense.
• Does this mean they can now add Dinosaurs and other animals like Dodos to the circus?

• No more freak show, no more gawkinging a the bearded lady, no more siamese twins or other such biological phenomenons.

  Now with the animals gone, all that's left is gymnastics.

• A maximum occupancy regulation for the clown car.