There is nothing to be learnt from seeing an elephant struggling to stand on its head while assailed by loud music under the glare of the circus lights. All we can learn from circuses is how mentally damaged animals behave. No, consideration of just one type of circus animal, the elephant, reveals just how sad the inheritance of the big top really is. Far from the suggested aim of conservation, many of the circus elephants have been caught from the wild. Both species of elephant are used by circuses.
Asian elephants are usually the older ones, while young African elephants are used too.
In fact, many of these youngsters will have experienced the trauma of seeing their families killed, and may have been tied to their dead mothers before being collected and sold to a dealer. This is the traditional source for baby elephants. If the circuses really cared, there are baby elephant orphanages in some African countries where the elephants could go. Instead, they come to British circuses and zoos, to be exploited for profit. All training goes on behind closed doors.