Gemini Circus Makes History as First in India to Introduce Robotic Animals, Awarded by PETA India
For Immediate Release:
12 January 2024
Contact:
Harshil Maheshwari; [email protected]
Sanskriti Bansore; [email protected]
Bengaluru – Gemini Circus has been awarded a certificate from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India for using innovative robotic animals to attract visitors. In 2015, PETA India inspections led to the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) revoking the circus’s Performing Animal Registration Certificate for violation of laws and cruelty to animals.
“Gemini Circus is doing the right thing by using technology instead of sad and confused animals to perform tricks,” says PETA India Deputy Director of Advocacy Projects Harshil Maheshwari. “PETA India thanks Gemini Circus for being the first in India to take this positive step, thereby refusing to cause suffering to animals. We encourage everyone to support circuses that feature non-animal technology and consenting human performers.”
Inspections by the AWBI and investigations by PETA India have revealed that animals used in circuses are subjected to chronic confinement, physical abuse, and psychological torment. Whips and other weapons are used to inflict pain and beat them into submission, forcing them to perform frightening and confusing tricks out of fear of violent punishment. When they aren’t performing in front of boisterous crowds, animals used in circuses endure a lifetime of misery. Their access to water, food, and veterinary care is often severely restricted. Dogs may be crammed into wire cages and rarely let out. Birds are often confined to small, filthy cages, and their wings are crudely clipped so they can’t fly. Horses are typically kept tethered on short ropes.
Two regulatory bodies, the AWBI and the Central Zoo Authority (CZA), have recognised that animal circuses are inherently cruel and that the use of animals in circuses in India should be prohibited. The AWBI previously advised the central government to pass legislation prohibiting animals in circuses across the country over animal welfare concerns, and the CZA wrote in support of prohibiting the use of elephants in circuses for the same reason. In 2018, the central government issued draft rules proposing to prohibit the use of all animals in circuses across India, but the rules have yet to be passed.
PETA India – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment” – opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETAIndia.com or follow the group on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, or Instagram.
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