Game of Thrones’ Lena Headey Sees a Future Without Animal Circuses
Lena Headey wants you to know that animals in circuses are beaten, chained, whipped and forced to perform against their will.
That’s why the actor, who plays Cersei Lannister in Game of Thrones, and has also starred in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and the award-winning 300 is speaking out against archaic circuses in an ad for PETA.
In the ad, Headey lets viewers in on what happens behind-the-scenes under the big top. She says,
Circus trainers often force elephants, bears, tigers and other animals to perform tricks by beating and whipping them, shocking them with electric prods and jabbing holes in their skin with sharp metal hooks.
Animals in circuses are deprived of everything that is natural and important to them. In their natural habitats, the same animals you see in chains, wearing costumes, riding bikes, and being beaten with whips and bullhooks in the circus would be free to walk, run and roam as they please; eat and drink whenever they feel like it; choose lifetime companions and raise their families. The circus provides animals with nothing but humiliation, pain and misery.
In an interview with PETA US, Headey explained that a documentary motivated her to try to stop the use of animals in circuses:
I decided to speak out because I’d seen a documentary on a French circus, and people had campaigned to free these lions that were in captivity since they were young. And they managed to do it, and they flew them to Africa, and it was really beautiful. But the fact is, it’s still going on.
Please join Lena in helping to end the cruelty. Ask the UK to ban wild animal circuses:
