The Feed: Aug 17 – 21

No sign of Zaky Mallah, this week SBS 2’s The Feed goes inside the unexpected organisation working to end child abuse; explores the unusual craft of reassembling dead animals; and takes a behind-the-scenes look at one of Australia’s last big-top circuses.

BACA – Bikers Against Child Abuse
At least 195,000 Australian children are suspected of being harmed or at risk of harm from abuse every year. Now there’s one unexpected group that’s working hard to change that. They’re not police or social services – but a bunch of tough, tattoo covered, leather clad bikers with a mission to end child abuse for good. The Feed’s Patrick Abboud gets unprecedented access inside this international organisation that goes by the name of Bikers Against Child Abuse.

Taxidermy
Once a month in Melbourne, nine strangers sit at a table and over eight long hours they skin, shape and gradually reassemble nine tiny mice. It’s a painstaking process, and removing a mouse’s brain with a cotton bud probably isn’t for everyone, but the classes have been sold out for a year – and the waiting list keeps growing. Thanks to its connection to trophy hunting, taxidermy has for decades been something of a dirty word, with its low profile practitioners few and far between. But from surreal artworks, to backyard tanneries and commercial warehouses stuffed with big game, the craft is coming out of the shadows.

Family Circus
The history of the circus spans 170 years. From the austere equestrian shows of 1850s England, to the massive traveling circuses of 1960s America and the hallowed halls of Lenin’s Moscow Circus School. Death-defying feats, freaks of nature and wild animals have captured the imagination of millions and now, the circus culture is undergoing another period of change. Can an iPad-addicted audience find any wonder in the spectacle of the circus? Can we really bring ourselves to watch wild animals perform tricks for our amusement? Traditional circuses have been closing all over the world and there are only a couple left in Australia. The Feed takes a look behind the scenes at one of the last of a dying breed of big top circuses.

7:30pm weeknights on SBS 2.