Stop Circus Suffering

In March 2011, ADI exposed the terrible cruelty that Anne the elephant was subjected to whilst at the Bobby Roberts Super Circus. As a result of our shocking exposé, the circus owners handed Anne over to Longleat Safari Park – where she remains today – and Bobby Roberts became the first circus owner to be found guilty of offences under the Animal Welfare Act (2006).

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.