Elephant hooks and whips: animal cruelty in zoos and circuses

On the occasion of the Day of Non-Violent Education on 30 April, PETA is reminding the public that animals in zoos and circuses are still being “trained,” drilled, and made to perform through psychological pressure and physical violence. According to internationally recognized experts, the training of wild animals such as elephants, lions, and tigers is invariably based on coercion and the principle of imposing one’s will on those who are weaker. The standard tools used to force wild animals to perform and comply are elephant hooks, sticks, whips, and electric prods. Nearly half of all German zoos still use the elephant hook to subdue animals. PETA is calling for a ban on these training instruments.

“Elephant hooks, sticks, and whips are nothing more than weapons that serve only one purpose in the circus and the zoo: to inflict pain and fear on an animal.” “These cruel methods must therefore be banned without delay so that the abuse can stop.”

Dr. Yvonne Würz, biologist and specialist adviser on animals in the entertainment industry at PETA

Animals suffer in the circus

Mindless tricks, psychological and physical suffering — that is the life of wild animals in German circuses. To make them obey, elephants are maltreated with the elephant hook, a stick fitted with a sharp metal hook. Big cats must fear the whip and the stick whenever they refuse to perform the monotonous tricks demanded of them in the ring. For wild animals in particular, life in a circus entails severe deprivation and systemic cruelty. Yet hundreds of wild animals continue to be transported across Germany on lorries and forced, through whips or elephant hooks, to carry out unnatural movements. As many as 27 European countries have already completely banned or at least restricted the use of wild animals in circus performances. In 2017 alone, Scotland, Italy, Ireland, Romania, Estonia, and Latvia passed new laws banning wild animals from circuses. Germany remains one of the last EU countries without a ban on wild animals in circuses.

Species-appropriate elephant keeping is systemically impossible even in zoos

Elephants continue to be mistreated in German zoos. To this day, nearly half of zoos in Germany that keep elephants still hold the animals in “direct contact”. In this system, keepers control elephants using the elephant hook. This method causes enormous psychological stress and pain for these sensitive animals. Video footage published by PETA shows elephant calves at Hanover Zoo being brutally punished with the elephant hook and a whip when they fail to obey. Another video from Wuppertal Zoo shows the hook being jabbed into the animals’ sensitive skin as they are made to pose for photos with visitors and perform tricks. The American zoo association AZA required its member zoos as early as 2012, effective 2014, to switch to the non-violent “protected contact” method. In Rhode Island and California, the elephant hook is already banned in circuses; in California, the ban extends to zoos as well. The animal welfare organisation is fundamentally opposed to keeping elephants in zoos, as it is impossible to do so in a species-appropriate manner regardless of the husbandry method used.

Part of PETA’s motto is that animals are not here for our entertainment. The organisation campaigns against speciesism — a worldview that regards humans as superior to all other living beings.