People take their children to the circus because it seems to offer clean, wholesome entertainment and, often, because it reminds them of good times they shared with their own parents.

The glare of the lights, the smell of the sawdust, the crack of the whip transport us to a simpler age.

Why aren’t circuses good for kids? Because circuses hide dirty secrets. Because once kids discover — as they inevitably will — the cruelty that holds up the big top, they will be horrified and disappointed in their parents. That is, unless they are shamed into denial or taught to be bullies.

Watch PETA videos on www.youtube.com if you can stand it to see what happens to circus animals.

Fear and deprivation are inherent in the training of circus animals. You will not see a circus animal act without sticks, whips, electric prods or bullhooks. Watch for them. They may not be used in public, but they work because the animals have learned, over and over again, what they feel like.

When circus owners and promoters speak of using “positive reinforcement,” they don’t mention that for food rewards to be effective an animal must be experiencing intense hunger. Experimental psychologists know this. Partly because of such training and partly because of neglect, water and food deprivation are common, and death and disease are rampant.

No wonder several countries, including Austria, Costa Rica and Israel, have banned animal acts in circuses, as have a growing number of U.S. cities. Corporate sponsors such as MasterCard, Visa, General Mills and Sears have withdrawn their support.

The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus has been repeatedly cited by the USDA for physical harm to animals, inadequate housing, failure to provide veterinary care, failure to provide for inspection of animals and records, and unsafe handling practices, meaning unsafe for the public. Good for kids?

One common violation is forcing animals — tigers, lions, camels, elephants, dogs, ponies — to perform when they are sick with tuberculosis or other serious disease. Good for kids?

In November, Ringling Bros. paid $270,000 to settle a slew of abuse, neglect and endangerment charges (www.aphis.usda.gov/animal_welfare). No school, no performing company, no regular business with such a record would be allowed to stay in business.

Here’s what’s really bad for kids. Circus spokesmen, advertisers, media, even parents, often with the best intentions, are invested in keeping the myth and the nostalgia alive. Savvy, insightful, sensitive kids are on the losing end.

Circuses are training grounds for insensitivity and selfishness. Sooner or later it dawns on children that animals can be forced and mistreated because they are weak, can’t communicate and have virtually no resources of their own, just like infants, old people and the mentally disabled. What a powerful lesson.

Circuses don’t need animals. Witness Cirque de Soleil and the New Pickle Family Circus. Four-legged performers are simply cheaper than human artists, who require wages and benefits, and they can’t quit. Education doesn’t need captive animals. Nature videos, which get more amazing every day, give us a more realistic picture of animals in their own environments than any sad, confined specimen can.

It’s time for circuses to stop touting their “centers for elephant conservation,” frauds that have never released, and can never release, any of the animals they breed into the wild, and instead put those facilities to good use by retiring their broken animal performers there. It’s time for circuses to retrain and reassign their animal trainers and caretakers, many of whom truly care for their wards and hate to witness what they do. Many of them have testified publicly about the horrors they have seen.

And for our kids’ sake, it’s time to throw animal-act circuses into the trash heap of degrading forms of entertainment, such as gladiator contests, blackface minstrel shows, bear baiting, bullfights — the list is endless — as well as freak shows, which were once essential parts of circuses and also worked to increase our credulity and dull our humanity.

It’s time for us parents to get real about this issue, do what’s right for our kids and fight against the hype as well as our own nostalgia.

Marián Prío is a retired mental health counselor and mother of two.