Me neither until I worked here. These are often called "whips" but that's not really how they're used, the term is just more convenient than "riding crop" or "dressage whip" or whatever. A real whip meant to inflict pain is made of braided leather, like the one Indiana Jones had.

Europe has a lot of circuses, but their laws are different as far as housing, transport and treatment of the animals. I know that some circuses in Italy and Morocco still use real whips with big cats. There has been a lot of change for the positive, especially when it comes to training methods. But there is always room for improvement (that doesn't include shutting down the circus!)