I remember talking to an elephant trainer for Ringling Bros after he cancelled a show because the elephant looked depressed (later turned out the elephant was depressed because she hadn’t put on a show for a couple of weeks due to travel and bad weather, after a performance the next day she was back to her cheery self). He said that for every circus that treated their animals well there were two others that didn’t, thus the bad reputation applied to all circuses.
And keep in mind that elephants like performing tricks.
At least it’s not a carnivorous book store couch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHgGdRSM9gk