Puppet animals in shows

[Catherine]

The current show in production is Circus 1903, but there have been others that used puppets.
I saw War Horse on stage and they were able to tell the story of WW1 horses without using and endangering any animals.
The Lion King also used puppets. It was an amazing show.
This is a very creative and safe way to have animals in productions.

http://news.google.ca/news/url?sr=1&ct2=...t=2&at=dt0

These puppets may be a very real solution to the need to have animals in shows. In some shows the animals would be at risk.
Certainly we don't want to see elephants in circuses anymore.  The horse puppets in War Horse became very real to us. Maybe more than real horses because they could use the puppets in ways that they couldn't use real horses. They could use the puppets to tell the story and show the dangers the horses faced. It was gripping and no actual horses were hurt. It is a total win-win situation.
I know that cat and dog puppets might not work out the same, but I think we should consider them more often in film making and stage productions.