The Circus Is Coming To Town!

I saw a billboard the other day advertising that the circus is coming to town and two of my most memorable childhood books are about the circus, If I Ran the Circus, but Dr Seuss and Circus Time by Marion Conger.  That's just part of being a kid is going to the circus.  My kids need to do this!  Or do they?
It made me think of a children's book I blogged about a year or so ago called Vegan is Love by Ruby Roth.  It talks about why being vegan means not going to the circus the zoo or aquariums.  While I get the circus thing, I think zoos and aquariums are maybe a different story.  Many of the zoo animals are there because they can't survive in nature (the one winged Bald Eagle at the Akron Zoo).  But the circus I get.  I recently read the based-on-a-true-story The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate, a VERY good book written from the point of view of a silverback gorilla living in a zoo-themed mall with various other animals and Ruby and elephant calf.  Let's just say the owner isn't all that nice to Ruby and poor Ivan is stuck in a small cage. (It ends well--read it!)
Also, Evan-my link to the outside world- told my that recently protests over use of elephants in the circus caused Ringling Brothers to promise to phase out the use of elephants in their circus acts.  When I went to PETA and googled "circus" a TON of articles popped up.  There are lots of protests for other circuses about the use (or exploitation) of animals in their circus acts.  I don't have the guts to organize a protest, but I'll write a blog urging you, the reader, to think twice about going to the circus.  I'll also read my kids the books I loved as a kid and hope that the nostalgic version of the circus (or Circus McGurkus as the case may be) will suffice for them.  If I'm not shopping at stores that support puppy mills I'm not giving money to somewhere that mistreats or exploits elephants or any other animal, for that matter.