After winning a Golden Globe and BAFTA for Manchester By The Sea, Casey Affleck has collaborated with PETA US to create a new video asking for families to avoid cuscuses that use live animals.
Casey Affleck for PETA
The footage shows that tigers and other large cats are kept in small, empty cages and whipped to get them to perform tricks. Affleck says; "I choose to work in the entertainment industry, but animals in circuses and other travelling shows are never given a choice".
Affleck who is parent, says he was shocked to find that cubs are stolen from their mothers while they are very young, so they get used to humans.
"This industry tears families apart and subjects individuals to a life of torment and deprivation", says Affleck. "[Trainers] drag the big cats around by heavy chains or ropes around their necks and hit them with sticks, poles, and whips. They beat them mercilessly and bully them into jumping through hoops."
The video shows the conditions these cats have to live in while they are not performing. They are made to eat, drink, sleep and relieve themselves in the same place. During training- the cats continue to suffer as the video shows- handlers whip and beat the animals to make them do tricks.
Last month, two lions and three tigers were seen on the back of a lorry, where they typically spend the majority of their time. Despite the efforts of all animal-welfare groups, the British Veterinary Association, and the overwhelming majority of the public, wild-animal circuses are still legal in the UK, despite the government's promise to ban them by 2015.
Affleck joins a growing list of celebrities – including Pamela Anderson, Sir Roger Moore, Martin Freeman, Michael Sheen, and many more – who have teamed up with PETA (whose motto reads, in part, that "animals are not ours to use for entertainment") and its international affiliates to speak out against circuses that use and abuse animals.
For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk
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