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Germany’s Roncalli circus has hit the headlines after they decided to replace real animals in their shows with holograms.

Believing in ‘all the fun of the fair without the cruelty’, the circus stopped using lions and elephants in its shows in 1991, but it went further in 2018 and completely removed live animals from its programme.

The big top still features all the classic elements of the circus, but with space constraints making life even more difficult for Roncalli, the troupe decided to replace all their live animals as “it was no longer appropriate for Roncalli to show real animals in the ring,” according to circus boss Patrick Philadelphia.

“If you’re setting up in the middle of a marketplace in the centre of town, there is no space for outdoor enclosures for animal runs,” said Philadelphia.

The nomadic character of circus life was also a strain for animals like horses which had to be loaded onto wagons and then driven to the next town. As Roncalli looked for ways to preserve the magic of animals for children, a show in which Justin Timberlake ‘collaborates’ with a hologram of the late Prince triggered the idea to turn to 3D imagery.

“If you can project someone who’s no longer living onto a holographic screen, why can’t you do it with an animal, a horse, an elephant? So that’s where the idea came from,” said Philadelphia.

It does take away some of the magic of the big top, but no one can justify keeping lions in a glorified Venter trailer for most of its life. Still, it’s just not the same (and maybe that’s a good thing).

While they’re at it, nobody will really miss the creepy clowns either. IT ruined them for us.

[source:euronews]