PETA Urges MPs to Ban Wild-Animal Circuses With Ads in Parliament Magazine
Wild animals belong in the wild: that’s the message that MPs will receive when they open this week’s issue of The House magazine. PETA has arranged for three eye-catching ads to appear in the parliamentary magazine urging Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Michael Gove MP to introduce a long-overdue bill banning the use of wild animals in travelling circuses.
Forcing wild animals such as lions, tigers, and camels to perform confusing tricks is a barbaric practice that has no place in a compassionate society. Animals used in circuses spend much of their lives being carted from one performance to another in cramped cages and barren trailers and may be beaten or punished in other ways if they fail to obey their trainers’ commands.
Despite being instructed by Parliament in 2011 to get wild animals out of circuses, the government has been stalling on implementing a ban. Gove has indicated that he’ll bring forward a ban as part of an ongoing animal-welfare overhaul, a move for which he has a clear mandate. In a government consultation in January 2015, 94 per cent of respondents – including the British Veterinary Association – demanded a complete and permanent ban.
Scotland is currently passing through its Parliament legislation for a ban, and the Welsh Government recently held a public consultation on mobile animal exhibits which included a similar proposal. England needs to take action quickly to avoid falling behind the times.
What You Can Do
Please contact the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs now and ask him to end these cruel shows.
