(photograph © Kiwidutch)
For most of us, the circus is a place where you go as a kid, or as an adult with young kids. I don’t know if when my kids are grown if I would go to one any more or not.
Little Mr. has since a tiny baby, a strong aversion to loud noises and things like big bands have him covering his ears, in tears and begging to go home.
Therefore we have been reluctant to take him to any performance or show where we could safely predict the high possibility of that one of us would be left standing outside the entrance, with said child unwilling to go back inside five minutes into the show.
As much as I love my kids, shelling out one or two hundred Euros for a special family excursion that two out of the four of us don’t get to actually see, also rankles financially so until now I have stayed at home with Little Mr. whilst Himself has taken Kiwi Daughter out to the theatre etc with friends.
The extreme irony is that for a very small human being, Little Mr. is capable of emitting the sort of decibels in tantrums and play that you would not have thought possible from such a small package of humanity: and although he appears to be totally immune to his own loudness, one trumpet, brass band or stage with a band during the local street fair has him running for cover in any opposite direction as quickly as possible.
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
Last year, with him finally showing less fear and successfully having gone to (and fully sat through) a Theatre experience , Himself suggested that Little Mr. might be ready for his first excursion to the Circus.
It’s autumn and we manage to get Saturday tickets to Circus Renz for the whole family quite near the front, and since it might have been a while since you have been to a circus, I have decided to make a few posts so that you may join me on a virtual tour.
Circus Renz is a “klassiekcircus” (classic circus) so there are animals in the performances, something I have reservations about, (wild animals on show for entertainment? hmmm) however there is a display board in the entrance tent that informs the public about the care and treatment of the animals in various “classic” circuses and a website, (Dutch language only) that discusses and documents information and incidents that have arisen.
In one case, “Bella”, an elephant in a different circus, got an infected foot and a vet who specialises in the treatment of wild and exotic animals was called to treat her, it appears that all of the treatment was common sense and straight forwards apart from him having to make speedy calls to his drug supplier for an urgent delivery because (naturally enough) he didn’t carry enough antibiotics in his usual stock to treat a 4000 kilo (8800 lb) animal.
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
The site has various vet reports and assessments of the animals conditions and treatment, all good it seems, and since you would only have to ask your own local professional animal welfare officer about what they have seen from people around your own back yard who abuse, neglect, abandon their cats dogs, horses etc, I can see that this coin definitely has two sides.
To my mind, any animal, domestic pet or otherwise, in a loving, well cared for situation can be a happy animal and any aminal, domestic or otherwise who is neglected and abused is not. It’s still a thorny issue… the performance bit at least, but it’s also been proven that animals in captivity suffer from boredom and like interactive activity, (and for many their natural habitat has been ruined by Man) so I at least, will sit on the fence reserve judgement for now.
The Herman Renz Circus has several little vehicles that they obviously use when they want to make short trips around town, one of them is a tuk-tuk and one is a little car, there’s a trailer with a carousel style horse on it as well, and all three serve as promotional advertising for the circus.
Little Mr. thinks that the car with the elephant on the top would be the ideal thing for him to take home, Kiwi Daughter however is more enamoured with the horse. Dream on kiddiewinkles…
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
Before you enter the Big Top proper, there is a very large “foyer” tent, where Little Mt gets his car “fix” on the central carousel ride and they browse the sweets and treats around the perimeter (It was a “no”‘ to the sweets, but they both score a hand held fibre-optic light thingy that flashes different colours).
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
We are early and the Main tent looks empty when we go inside but fills up quickly literally minutes before the performance starts…
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
