Stop Circus Suffering

Urge Wales to ban wild animal acts before 8th October!

The Welsh Government is currently consulting on proposals to “improve the welfare of animals in mobile animal exhibits” including circuses. Please join ADI today in responding to this important consultation that could very well decide the fate of a circus ban in Wales.

The Welsh Government is currently consulting on proposals to “improve the welfare of animals in mobile animal exhibits” including circuses. Please join ADI today in responding to this important consultation that could very well decide the fate of a circus ban in Wales.

The consultation comes after the publication of a report on the welfare of wild animals in travelling circuses last year, commissioned by the Welsh Government. Despite its remit, the expert analysis extended to mobile zoos, with its findings supporting a ban on both wild animal circuses and mobile zoos on animal welfare grounds.

As a result, the government is now considering whether and how to protect these animals. Your participation and support for a ban on wild animals in circuses – pledged by the Welsh government in 2013 and backed by both the Welsh Conservatives and Liberal Democrats – is therefore crucial.

Three English circuses with wild animals have visited Wales in recent years, and with no ban of such acts in place, the door is open to others joining them.

Two years ago, Thomas Chipperfield’s ‘An Evening with Lions and Tigers’ featured two lions and three tigers forced to perform tricks under the guise of education. The show, prevented from performing in England over welfare failings, sparked a public outcry and was met with political opposition, protests and petitions. An ADI investigation of the big cats’ accommodation in Staffordshire, where they have been since touring Wales, revealed the animals confined to their cages on the back of a truck the majority of the time, with restricted daily access to an outdoor exercise area. On one of the days observed, the lions were not let out at all.

ADI has also exposed the miserable lives of the animals at another English circus, which has toured Wales, Peter Jolly’s Circus. At their winter quarters, ADI filmed appalling overcrowding, fighting between animals, a worker spitting in the face of and tormenting a camel, and ponies tangled in short tethers. Animals were crammed in a run-down building for 14 hours a day, some animals shut in the dilapidated building for days on end, on one occasion animals tethered for up to 40 hours, and government regulations ignored.

Without a ban, the suffering continues.

Please take action today!

Taking part in the consultation will take just 5 minutes of your time but could help bring about lasting change for the animals. Please note that the deadline is Sunday 8th October.

Simply follow the instruction below:

  1. Click here to take part in the consultation.
  2. Click ‘start response’ at the bottom of the page.
  3. Click ‘next page’ until you reach question number 8.
  4. Use ADI’s template response:

    Wild animals in circuses:

    8. At present there are no circuses based in Wales but they do visit. The Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Rural Affairs has not dismissed the possibility of Wales banning the use of wild animals in circuses. Do you consider that such a ban should be considered?

    Yes.

    Please give your reasons for this.

    Yes, a ban on the use of wild animals in circuses should be introduced at the earliest opportunity. Evidence and studies over the past twenty years makes it clear that, even with the best will in the world, travelling circuses simply cannot provide wild animals with the environment they need to maintain health and welfare, and therefore must be banned. Travelling circuses are constantly on the move and, by necessity, animal accommodation must be small, lightweight, collapsible and easy to transport. For the animals, this means long periods with restricted space to move around and barren environments with nothing to interest or engage the animals. Restricted from performing their natural behaviours, animals suffer physical and social deprivation; stress which can result in abnormal, stereotypic behaviours; as well as physical abuse during training and handling. Captivity does not alter their wild nature, causing animals to be unpredictable and dangerous, compromising public safety. A system of licensing and registration cannot protect wild animals from the inherent suffering they endure in the circus and therefore only a ban can safeguard their welfare.

  5. Submit your response!

This is an important opportunity to secure the ban that the public want and the animals so desperately need. Please take part and encourage friends and family to do so too. It is vital that the Welsh government sees the strength of feeling on this issue.

To help ADI continue to expose circus suffering, please donate here.

Comments

  1. Jackie Foster · 2 October 2017 at 10:30a

    Please put a stop to using wild animals in zoos and circuses

  2. Julia moore · 2 October 2017 at 10:30a

    Utter shameful cruelty

  3. Nancy Diaferio · 2 October 2017 at 10:30a

    Please stop the injustice for the animals of the planet. We do not own animals

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