Suffering of animals in circuses must be stopped, not simply displaced

A news report yesterday confirmed that a group of lions and tigers, likely to be those that have been used for a number of years in Tom Duffy’s Circus in Ireland, are destined to join a new circus in England. This comes just six months after campaigners celebrated the apparent end of use of big cats in English circuses as the last performing lions and tigers to be used by the UK-based Great British Circus were sent to Ireland to join Courtney Brothers Circus. It was heralded as the end of an era when Duffy’s announced that the big cats would be leaving the show but there is little to celebrate now we know that the animals will simply be moved across the Irish Sea to continue in the same existence.

Tiger in in Tom Duffy's circus in 2012. (c) CAPS/C.Redmond

Any victory is somewhat hollow if suffering is simply displaced from one country to another. In the long term, the more individual countries that ban the use of animals in circuses, the less demand there will be for those animals and the fewer will be bred in future to endure impoverished and unnatural lives in the big top. It goes without saying that we must continue to strive for national bans as part of the long-term campaign. In the meantime, though, we will continue to see animals being shifted from pillar to post and a tiger in a circus in England will suffer equally to a tiger in a circus in Ireland while the respective Governments continue to stall. This is why it is so important that the UK and Ireland close the door on this practice once and for all. 

Concern is not limited to wild animals (c) CAPS/C.Redmond

It is also vital that we don’t forget the other animals. As Duffy’s announced that they would no longer use big cats in their shows, they promptly replaced them with dogs and birds. This means more animals will be spending their lives performing meaningless tricks for circus audiences. Whilst none of the legislative measures in discussion in the UK and Ireland are currently considering banning the use of domesticated animals in circus shows, we firmly support an end to the use of all animals in circuses.

It’s not all doom and gloom, though – far from it. Irish Ministers from Dublin and Belfast have recently appointed a team to consider the situation of wild animals in circuses. England has committed to ban (although we continue to urge the Government to ignore the ill-advised recommendations of the select committee on this matter). Scotland is due to consult on the issue in the coming year and Wales has shown commitment to ban. 

Local grassroots action has been vital in driving down visitor numbers to animal circuses and shows have dropped animal acts in response to protests and negative feedback from customers. This has to continue for the horses, dogs and other domesticated animals which will not be protected by banning legislation.We are moving in the right direction and we will succeed. It will just take more hard work.

If you live in England, Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland, you can help.

If you live in ENGLAND, please write to Lord de Mauley today on demauley@parliament.uk and demand that the ban on all wild animals in circuses is implemented as soon as possible.

If you live in the REPUBLIC of IRELAND, please contact Minister, Simon Coveney, on simon.coveney@oir.ie to request an outright ban on the use of wild animals in circuses.

If you live in NORTHERN IRELAND, please contact Minister, Michelle O’Neill, on dardhelpline@dardni.gov.uk with the same request.

Government must stick to its promise: It’s time to put an end to the circus policy circus

Since 2005, the current political process towards securing a ban on the use of wild animals in circuses has been pursued tirelessly by animal protection organisations, individual campaigners and activists and a host of sympathetic cross-party MPs.

In April of this year, after a number of false starts (remember the news that the Defra Minister was “minded” to ban back in early 2011?), a number of false claims (remember the non-existent court case in Austria?) and a number of high-profile opponents (remember the allegations of coercion against PM David Cameron's office by Mark Pritchard MP?), the draft bill to ban the use of wild animals in English circuses was finally published.  The ban would not be implemented until 2015, mind, but the long-fought battle appeared to have been won and widespread celebrations ensued.

Why do zebras deserve less protection than tigers? Photo: CAPS

But then, on Tuesday of this week, the report released by the EFRA select committee charged with scrutinising the draft bill put forward by Government made the recommendation that the ban should only be applied to elephants and big cats. This recommendation was based on the committee’s belief that the public have no real concern for racoons, snakes, zebra and camels. It was furthermore suggested that the only reason that there was concern for elephants, tigers and lions was that the public mistakenly believes that these animals are still used in large numbers in English circuses.

It seems that the committee were unaware of (or perhaps choosing to ignore) the 2009/2010 public consultation on the subject of wild animals in circuses which asked the question of the general public “Do you think that there are any species of wild animal which it is acceptable to use in travelling circuses?” and which saw a resounding 95.5% of respondents answering “No”.

Camels are no more suited to circus life than elephants. Photo: CAPS

The committee may be confused on this matter but the public are certainly not. Indeed, the public have spoken out clearly, along with experts, animal protection campaigners and MPs time and time again.

If Government does choose to follow the committee’s advice then, by banning animals that have already been removed from the circus, and failing to prohibit those animals that are still being used, the ban would save zero animals from continued exploitation. That certainly is not what we have all been working so hard towards for so long.

Thankfully the Government is not bound by the select committee’s advice and can choose to continue to pursue the ban that we all want to see implemented. But we must remind officials that we were listening when Lord de Mauley made the promise that:

“This legislation will end the use of wild animals in travelling circuses in this country. It will also help ensure that our international reputation as a leading protector of animals continues into a new global era”.

Not only were we listening, but we will continue to hold them to that promise.

Please join us in taking urgent action today by writing to the Defra minister, Lord de Mauley, to ask him to reject any suggestion of narrowing the scope of the ban and deliver on his promise to prohibit the use of all wild animals in travelling circuses in England.

Please don’t delay – this quick and easy action will help to demonstrate that the public want a ban on the exploitation of all wild animals in travelling circuses.

Email Lord de Mauley: demauley@parliament.uk

Thank you

Find out more about the progress of this campaign by visiting www.captiveanimals.org