Anyone who suffers from arthritis knows how painful a disease it is. Even pulling a weed or buttoning a blouse can be just too difficult. Senior citizens aren’t the only ones who suffer from this debilitating condition.

Elephants used in circuses are susceptible to developing arthritis because they spend most of their lives in chains. They endure hours on end in fetid railroad boxcars or jammed in tractor trailers. Forced to stand in one place instead of walking for miles every day, as they are meant to, elephants develop joint problems and serious conditions affecting their feet. Both can be life-threatening: Foot disorders and arthritis are the leading reasons for euthanasia in captive elephants.

Karen, Nicole, Assan, and Siam are four elephants traveling with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. All four exhibit serious lameness and stiffness. Nicole and Karen also suffer from arthritis. Ringling has ignored all recommendations that Nicole be excluded from performing certain routines, and now she is in such poor physical condition that experts insist that keeping her on the road constitutes unnecessary cruelty.

Karen is also on the road performing grueling tricks, even though she has a history of chronic abscesses on her feet, including a serious, deep abscess that covers three-quarters of a nail. This aging elephant has been with Ringling since 1969 and has been suffering from severe lameness since at least 1997. Karen bobs her head, sways nearly all the time, and even stands on her own trunk.

Dr. Philip Ensley, a board-certified veterinarian with more than three decades of experience in elephants and other exotic species, has inspected elephants traveling with Ringling. He concluded that keeping elephants on hard surfaces and forcing them to participate in repetitive and unnatural behavior is a major factor in perpetuating and aggravating their current lameness and painful gaits. There’s little doubt that lame elephants who struggle to walk are in pain.

Instead of receiving treatment or even relief from their pain, elephants with Ringling Bros. are poked, prodded, and beaten. They are forced to perform ridiculous circus tricks, such as standing on their head or hind legs, which puts even more pressure on their aching joints.

Elephants can get some degree of relief from debilitating health conditions and regain their mental health when they are retired to The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee or PAWS in California. Many success stories are poignantly detailed in Carol Bradley’s new book, Last Chain on Billie. Elephants arrive at sanctuaries dazed, hurting, depressed, and broken. With space to roam and the support and understanding of other victims, elephants become elephants again. They learn to relish life without chains.

Parents and grandparents, please never buy a ticket to the circus. Also, explain to your little ones why your family doesn’t support cruelty to animals.