This disturbing footage shows dolphins being forced to leap through rings of fire, before being crammed into tiny boxes.
The mammals are seen leaping out of the water through the narrow hoops with flames brushing against them.
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Trainers beat the water with a metal pole when the dolphins make a mistake or reward them with dead fish to eat for tricks like carrying balls on their noses.
The 6ft-long bottlenose dolphins are then hauled from the tiny pool and loaded into open-topped, water-filled wooden boxes.
They’re then driven in pick-up trucks hundreds of miles across rough roads or flown in planes to reach the next destination in Indonesia.
Ric O’Barry Dolphin Project released the ‘disturbing footage’ after he was tipped off by concerned visitors to the circus.
Lincoln O’Barry, from the group, said: ‘As hard as it is to believe, dolphin traveling circuses are a big hit in Indonesia.
‘It’s pretty barbaric. It’s the only time I’ve seen dolphins jumping through a hoop of fire. It’s definitely something from a bygone era.
‘While all captive dolphin facilities have welfare issues, the circuses in Indonesia seem decidedly crueler because they’re traveling.
‘The animals are frequently hauled out of their plastic performing pools and loaded into the back of trucks along with other animals as the circuses move from town to town.
‘The transportation is so stressful for the animals that many of the dolphins die due to this stress and lack of proper care.
‘There is also evidence that dolphins have been caught illegally from the wild.’
Convoys of trucks carrying dolphins arrive at different locations and the dolphins are moved again into temporary, portable plastic pools filled with chlorine and artificial salt water.
Spectators pay the equivalent of a few pennies to watch the dolphins perform.
Other animals kept in the circus are baby sunbears, small clawed otters, yellow crested cockatoos and an orangutan.
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