Sometimes Lions Will Be Lions at the Circus, Which is Bad News for the Trainers

Organizations like PETA have have been protesting the use of wild animals in the circus for a long time. The animals play a major role in any circus, in particular, the elephants and the big cats. More often than not, the performances go off without a hitch, but sometimes the animals don't want to perform and that can be scary. Such was the case recently during a performance of the Lviv Circus when one of the male lions decided he didn't feel like performing and aggressively let the trainers know that.

Animal advocates argue that these animals should not be held in captivity and should not be exploited through performance. Now matter how good the lion tamers are, lions are still lions and WILL act accordingly as lions.

Attacking big cats, in this case lions, can be just as dangerous for the spectators as they are for the trainers, which creates several major issues for the circus... namely, how to handle it.

This video is a great example of what can go wrong. This video is not all that graphic, but is extremely troubling and unsettling, not to mention very tense. This could have been much worse, especially when some of the other lions decided to help their brother. See for yourself.