Licensing will not protect animals from suffering – only a ban will do.
Over the past few months, we have done all we can to get to the
bottom of the plans for licensing and understand why the Government is
proceeding down this path when a ban is now deemed possible. No matter
how hard we tried though, we seemed to be blocked at every turn. In
response to our concern that Government papers suggested that the
proposed temporary licensing regime appeared to be designed to be very
much more permanent than we had been led to believe, a senior Defra
official said: “I am not aware we have ever suggested that the licensing scheme would be a ‘temporary’ measure...”.To say this response set alarm bells ringing would be an understatement: it was clear that the Government’s stated intention to ban and its proposals for licensing were completely at odds with one another. One approach told a hopeful story of animals being free from circus suffering within three years and the other saw them languishing in the big top, with a government seal of approval, for at least the next ten years. Which were we to believe?
We had been kept waiting for months to secure a meeting with the Minister responsible for the circus issue and were finally given a slot at the “eleventh hour” – just two days before the end of the consultation period. So it was that, yesterday afternoon, Gavin Grant, CEO of the RSPCA, Harvey Locke, former president of the British Veterinary Association, Will Travers, CEO of the Born Free Foundation and I attended the long-awaited meeting with Lord Taylor. We were all hoping for some straight answers on the ban.
I have to admit, given the failure of Government to give us any satisfactory answers to date, I didn’t go into the meeting feeling particularly optimistic. I am, however, pleased to say that we all came out feeling that there is hope and I wanted our supporters to be the first to know what was discussed.
Reason for hope #1: The Minister confirmed that licensing will be temporary and that there will be ban before the end of this Government’s term. With the general election likely to happen in 2015, it is two or three years longer than we (or the animals) would hope for, but is better than a ten-year (or permanent) licensing system.
Reason for hope #2: The Minister confirmed that the ban will apply to all wild animals in circuses. There will be no “grandfather” clause allowing animals already in circuses to remain. From the date of the ban, it will be illegal for wild animals to be used in the travelling circus environment.
Reason for hope #3: Importantly, we had been concerned that asking the circus industry to invest significant resources into meeting licensing regulations only to make the practice illegal two years later would be open to challenge and would create new obstacles to a ban. The Minister’s simple answer was that it would be the circuses’ choice to invest or not, that the industry has been forewarned and so makes any investment in the full knowledge that it is for a limited timeframe. We hope that this important clarification will lead the circuses to consider retiring the animals now, rather than make investment for the sake of just a few more seasons.
There were, however, things we couldn’t agree on:
Reason for concern #1: The Government proposes a ban via primary legislation. Whilst we are not opposed to this approach per se, primary legislation will take a long time to implement and we argued that a ban under the Animal Welfare Act would speed up the process drastically, reducing the suffering for the animals. On this point though, it seems that Government will not be moved.
Reason for concern #2: We stand by our opposition to licensing. It won’t protect the animals and is a complicated and expensive short-term stop gap which takes focus away from work towards the ban. On this point too, it seems the Government is determined and that licensing will go ahead regardless of its lack of support.
On the whole, it was a productive discussion. I believe that everyone
in the meeting felt a small step forward had been taken and some of the
confusion had been cleared up. I won’t go so far to say that I am ready
to celebrate just yet though. It is undeniable that there have been
some seriously mixed messages coming out of the Government department as
well as a failure to properly engage with key stakeholders. We maintain
our view that the consultation is fundamentally flawed and the
licensing regime will not work. We still have two or three years before
we see animals safe which is two or three years too long. None of these
points give us reason to celebrate, but continue to offer serious cause
for concern.On the other hand, and the most important point that I took from the meeting, is that I do now believe that the intention to ban is genuine. What remains to be seen, of course, is that ban being put into practice. We have offered Government our full support in working towards achieving this aim and, until it happens, we will continue to do all that we can to ensure that we hold the Minister to his word.
We will, of course, be keeping our supporters fully up to date with developments as and when they happen.
