THE owner of McLaren Circus, due to visit Queensburgh this week, has explained what motivates him each day and convinced him to follow what he describes as a “childhood dream of owning my circus.”
David McLaren has received both criticisms as well as praise for the journey he embarked on in choosing to own and run a travelling circus.
On the one hand, the audience and people who he has touched through his work, have expressed admiration and thanks, on the other hand, there are those who take exception to him including animal acts in his show.
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Writing about McLaren and his circus would not be complete without mentioning the actions of those who have taken to protesting the erection of his circus tents in communities.
One group, in particular, the Ban Animal Trading (BAT), headed up locally by KZN representative Tara Aberdeen, have staged protests at every community the circus has travelled to. They are, again planning a protest at the site of McLaren’s Circus in Queensburgh this week.
McLaren has said he fails to understand why they are choosing his circus to focus on when another, Circus Royale, which visited Queensburgh in June, didn’t attract the same ire.
“About a month ago, there was a smaller circus called Royale Circus in Queensburgh at the same venue. What was the community’s take on them also using animals?” asked McLaren.
He said he felt there was a divide between the protestors action against the use of animals based on what he claims is a relatively arbitrary distinction between domesticated and so-called wild animals.
He claimed the other show featured domesticated animals performing including, dogs, pigeons and geese.
“Do we have ‘animal apartheid’ here?” he asked. “Do only ‘wild’ animals have rights and not domestic animals?” However, there weren’t the same protests he encountered at each of his stops on his tour.
“What is Aberdeen’s take on domesticated animals performing? Or did no one even notice anything because there was no one like her causing a stir? Or was the other circus too small and insignificant?” he asked.
BAT’s Aberdeen, when approached by the Queensburgh News for comment replied that while she and her group was aware of Circus Royale, and she had planned to protest against them during the length of time they were in the area, but the small number of her group made it impossible for her to do so.
“We protest against all forms of use of animals, and certainly don’t approve of their acts using animals, but compared to the size and reach of McLaren’s Circus, they were really very small,” she said.
“Also they don’t come around regularly, and the reason McLaren has attracted such a lot of attention is that this is the first time in five years that he has been in the area and we feel it is a very big deal.”
Meanwhile, there is another side to the circus and what it does within the communities it visits.
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In a communication to McLaren’s PA, shared with the Queensburgh News, a representative of Ningizimu Special School, which caters for learners with moderate to severe intellectual impairment, thanked the circus and McLaren himself for the kindness he showed a group of learners.
“Most of our learners come from really impoverished homes. None of them has ever experienced such an amazing educational experience with animals. Thank you for a day many will not forget. The backstage tour of the animals was perfect and allowed our learners to get the closest to these animals that they would ever get.
“The mini performance with the clown and juggler left our kids in awe. A special thank you for providing our little quadriplegic learner, Sandile Shange, with a chair. As he slowly walked around the animal enclosures, he was able to sit and rest before moving on.
“He is usually a kid who always gets left behind, so thank you for making this experience a pleasant one for him. Thank you again for this generous gesture and for affording our special learners this amazing experience at absolutely no cost,” wrote physiotherapist May Moodley.
McLaren said the offering of free shows to schools where learners can benefit from exposure to animals and performers was part of why he followed his childhood dream of opening a circus.
“We often host free animals encounters and shows for the disadvantaged and underprivileged in communities across all nine provinces of South Africa that we so proudly tour,” he wrote when sharing the letter from Moodley.
“I normally do not share this with the media. I am not looking for any publicity here. I only want to show you what I get up to when no one is looking,” he said. “This is why I follow my childhood dream of owning my circus. This is why I wake up in the mornings and do circus.”
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