Nickelodeon’s Eliza Thornberry proves, week after week, that she’s an animated angel for animals. Her father’s television show, Nigel Thornberry’s Animal World, has Eliza’s family on the road, traveling to faraway places—and Eliza always has her own adventure involving the animals she meets.
Eliza can talk to animals, an amazing ability that comes in handy
during her hair-raising animal rescues, which have included convincing
animals to band together to save rain forests that were being cut
down, freeing a captive hyena, and protecting a polar bear wrongly
accused of vicious attacks.
Real-life chimpanzee expert Jane Goodall guest-starred on The Wild Thornberrys as herself to tell Eliza why animals don’t belong in captivity. Dr. Goodall has spent decades in the African forests studying chimpanzees in their natural habitats and knows that the best way to help animals and to learn about them is by studying them in their natural habitats, not behind bars in zoos or circuses.
That’s Not Entertainment!
Zoos teach visitors that animals get bored and frustrated from constant confinement, unable to hunt, forage, and mate as they would the wild. Birds’ wings are often clipped so they can’t fly, and animals who naturally live in large herds or family groups are often kept alone or, at most, in pairs. Stressed animals develop “zoochosis,” which causes them to rock, sway, pace non-stop, or bang their heads on their enclosures. Most zoos breed animals just to make sure that there are always “cute” babies to display. Adults aren’t released into the wild—many older animals are sold to hunting ranches, where they are shot by hunters.
In circuses, animals are forced to stand on their heads, ride bicycles,
and perform other dangerous, often frightening tricks. Elephants,
tigers, bears, and other animals are strong, but in circuses, trainers
beat the animals with bullhooks and keep them caged and chained
most of the time so that the animals learn “who’s boss.” Ringling and
other circuses claim to use only positive training methods, but they
fight efforts to ban cruel methods.
