Circus, Circus

A friend of mine asked if we wanted to go to the circus last weekend. She wanted to take her kids, and didn't want to go alone. I had never been to the circus, so I was really excited to go. Overall, it was pretty fun. The music, the fanfare, the costumes. There weren't many animal acts, dogs, elephants, horses/zebras, and tigers, and they were actually a little boring. The trainer did a lot of yelling, and you couldn't really get what trick they were supposed to be carrying out--it didn't keep Kai's short attention span entertained. The clowns and the girl shot out of the cannon were Kai's favorite. He thought the cannon was so cool and wanted to be shot out of it. Katalina made it look super easy. Sadly, I didn't get a picture of her, because I was trying to contain his excitement. The concessions were outrageous! I kind of expected them to be, but $15 for a snowcone and $8 for cotton candy? Come on! After the sticker shock, I asked myself, "Well, how else are they gonna pay for all those elephants to eat?", and willingly handed over the cash. At the souvenior stand ($18 for a plastic sword that glows in the dark), I picked up a free pamphlet about Ringling Bros. elephant conservation. I admit, the biggest reason I took it, was to put in Kai's scrapbook, and it was free. When I got home, however, I gave it a quick glance and decided to look up their website just out of curiosity's sake. I never type in a website. I usually google a few words, because I am lazy. I typed "Ringling Bros elephants". I was horrified to find Ringling Bros has a pending lawsuit for abusing their elephants! I even saw a video or two on Youtube with "trainers" caught in the act as early as last year and had to stop watching. I was furious! I will never go to another circus that involves animals. I didn't know in this day and age, a company as prominent as Ringling Bros would treat their ENDANGERED animals this way. I learned a valuable lesson--do a little research before attending events that I don't know much about. I will put pictures of the circus and the pamphlet in his scrapbook, but hopefully with the caption, "The Last Ringling Bros. Circus Featuring Animals".