Stop Circus Suffering

In May 2013, over three days, our friends at the Estonian Society for the Protection of Animals (ESPA) received seven eyewitness accounts of Medi being beaten and kicked. On one occasion she was apparently chained and beaten with a crowbar; despite pleas for her handler to stop.

Not once could she manage to lift her trunk out of the water to breath. By the time the man on top of her realises that she is struggling for life and holds her trunk tip out of the water, it is obviously too late.

ADI has today expressed its profound disappointment that the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee (EFRA), in their report on the draft Wild Animals in Circuses Bill, suggests that the wild animal ban could be watered down.

ADI has applauded the Welsh Assembly for pledging its support for a ban on the use of wild animals in circuses, following the Coalition Government unveiling of legislation for a ban on such acts in England.

It’s “THE END OF AN ERA”, says Ireland’s Duffy’s Circus owner announcing that lions and tigers will not be performing with the circus for the rest of the season, and are unlikely to do so in the future.

ADI is saddened and disturbed by video of the death of an elephant called Medi (also known as Madi) in a river in Estonia in June 2013. She had reportedly died of heart failure whilst bathing in a lake in Narva after a circus performance.