Welcome to our newest series on the blog – Animal Circus Spotlight. In this series, we will interview trainers and performers who know what it is really like to work with circus animals.
Thomas Chipperfield comes from a line of animal trainers that stretches back more than 300 years, and he started working with a variety of circus animals at a young age. In our first Animal Circus Spotlight, Thomas tells us a bit about what it is like to be an animal trainer in this day and age.
What type of animals do you have experience working with?
My specialty is big cats (lions and tigers) but I also have experience with horses, ponies, dogs, snakes, alligators, parrots, spiders, lemurs, tapirs, zebras, camels, foxes, reindeer, ostrich and raccoons. Some of these examples involved assisting private keepers in husbandry training.
Tell me a little bit about how you got started working with animals in the circus.
I belong to an old circus family, so my childhood involved early and constant exposure to animals of all kinds. At the earliest age possible I would help my father in the handling and care of the tigers, horses, dogs, reptiles and monkeys which he kept. Whilst I’d had free contact with cubs, it wasn’t until I was 15 that I began my free contact training with the adult tigers. This training took 3 years before I was ready to start presenting the act, myself.
What is your favorite part of working with animals?
Aside from the genuine feeling of joy my animals bring to my life just by being a part of it, the sense of accomplishment when you make a breakthrough in teaching a new behaviour, especially when the animal is slow to pick it up, is quite special. Whilst I’m an artist and not an academic, my interest in animal behaviour and the opportunity the circus provides to expand your knowledge on the subject is the draw for me.
That being said, the rush you get from performing in front of a packed house who are excited to see well treated big cats can’t be overstated.
Have you struggled with protesters and/or animal rights activists while performing with animals?
Like everyone in my business, I’ve had my run ins with these people. Whilst we’ve been lucky in preventing them from disrupting the act itself, we’ve had the threats of kidnap, arson, murder, blackmail directed at ourselves and the owners of the venues we set up in. The animal rights lobby in England, until quite recently, was forced to reign itself in after some extremely violent attacks on their targets. Sadly, they’re returning to their old ways, and people will get hurt if they’re not checked.
What is one thing you wish people understood about performing with animals?
There are so many misapprehensions people have about animal training and presentation, it’s difficult to put your finger on the one that holds up the rest. To take a shot at it, I’d say that the most pernicious myth is that animals can only be taught to cooperate with people through coercion and brutality. Not only is it untrue, which we can talk about, but it’s also insulting to animals. The idea that animals only understand a firm hand is a bigotry of low expectations, which dismisses the intelligent and plasticity of their cognition.
Want more Animal Circus content? Check out this post on animal circus myths and misconceptions.