REXANO Wild animals in circuses Defra animal welfare bill

United Kingdom: Wild Animals in Circuses

(originally published on DEFRA, UK website)

Wild Animals in Travelling Circuses: The Report of the Chairman of the Circus Working Group PDF (250 KB) has now been published (November 2007).

Animal Welfare Act

Questions and answers

Wild animals in circuses

Ben Bradshaw, the then Minister with responsibility for animal welfare, announced in the House of Commons in March 2006 that the government intends to introduce Regulations under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 to ban the use, in travelling circuses, of certain non-domesticated species whose welfare needs cannot be satisfactorily met in that environment.

A Circus Working Group has been convened to consider the issue. Members include representatives of welfare organisations, the circus industry, other government departments and those who have a relevant expertise in the welfare of wild animals.

Remit

The remit of the group is to provide, and consider, evidence relating to the transportation and housing needs of non-domesticated species. It will look at the possibility of a read across between the welfare standards for non-domesticated animals being kept in zoos with those being used in travelling circuses. Training will not be included in the remit as it is being considered as part of the wider Defra review of the regulation of animals used in performance.

The Group has set up three sub groups.

The Industry Sub Group and the Welfare Sub Group will each be asked to provide evidence, and to consider which, if any, non-domesticated species are suitable for use in travelling circuses. We would expect these groups to provide evidence relating to:

welfare during transportation,
accommodation standards,
behavioural needs, and whether these can be met in a travelling circus environment,
the future of those animals deemed unsuitable for a circus environment, but already represented in circuses,
the percentage of time that animals are on tour with travelling circuses,
the extent to which they may also be travelling and in temporary accommodation for use in media other than circuses.

Both the industry and welfare organisations sub-groups have nominated three people who are qualified to peer review scientific evidence to sit on an Academic Sub Group. This sub-group’s members are all vets and appropriately qualified academics. It is currently reviewing relevant scientific evidence submitted by the other two groups.

Findings

Wild Animals in Travelling Circuses: The Report of the Chairman of the Circus Working Group PDF (250 KB) has now been published (November 2007).

Q & A

Q. What does the Government intend to do now the report has been published?

A. The Government will now want to hear reactions to the report and consider its position.

Q. Why was the group formed?

A. During Parliamentary debates on the Animal Welfare Bill, concerns were expressed about the use of non-domesticated animals in circuses. Ben Bradshaw, the Minister for Animal Welfare, announced in March 2006 that he was minded to introduce Regulations under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 to ban the use, in travelling circuses, of certain non-domesticated species if their welfare needs could not be satisfactorily met in that environment.

To assist the Minister in forming a decision on which non-domesticated species should be banned, Defra invited representatives of welfare organisations and the circus industry to form a Circus Working Group to provide and consider evidence relating to the transportation and housing needs of these animals.

The group’s work was facilitated by Defra, but carried out independently.

Q. Who are the group members?

A. The group as a whole was formed of representatives of the circus industry, animal welfare organisations and academics and veterinarians. It was chaired by Mike Radford, Reader in Law at Aberdeen University who has significant expertise in animal welfare law. The members of the Academic Panel were:

Mike Lomas BVSc MRCVS JP (Chairman)

Professor Sir Patrick Bateson MA PhD ScD FRS Professor of Ethology, University of Cambridge, UK

Professor Ted Friend PhD Department of Animal Science, Texas A&M University, United States

Dr Marthe Kiley-Worthington BSc DPhil MPhil Director Centre of Eco-Etho Research and Education, Drome, France Fellow, Berkeley, University of California

Samantha Lindley BVSc MRCVS Veterinary Surgeon Behaviourist, United Kingdom

Professor Georgia Mason BSc PhD Canada Research Chair in Animal Welfare University of Guelph, Canada Visiting Professor in Animal Welfare, Royal Veterinary College, UK

Peter Scott MSc BVSc FRCVS RCVS Specialist in Zoo and Wildlife Medicine Biotope Specialist Veterinary Consultancy, Winchester, UK

Q. What was the group’s remit?

A. The group looked at only non-domesticated animals, defined as a member of a species that is not normally domesticated in the British Islands; that is to say, a species whose collective behaviour, life cycle or physiology remains unaltered from the wild type despite their breeding and living conditions being under human control for multiple generations.

It looked at the issues of housing and transportation only, not performance and training.

Q. Why only non-domesticated animals?

A. The government is not aware of any viable concerns that the welfare needs of domestic animals cannot be met in a circus environment.

Q. Why not performance and training?

A. Performance and training techniques were excluded as we considered that if any cruel practices were used in the training of animals it should be relatively straightforward to mount a prosecution for cruelty under the Animal Welfare Act. In addition many of the techniques used to train circus animals would be employed in the training of animals performing in other media. In these circumstances we concluded that training techniques used to control animals in circuses was an area that should be looked at in the context of training for all media when we came to revise the Performing Animals (Regulation) Act 1925. The performing animal industry outside circuses, which includes film, TV, stage and advertising, was not a priority concern of parliament where the focus of attention during the passage of the bill was wild animal acts in circuses. Although there is a commitment from Ministers to up-date the 1925 Act, a time table has not yet been decided.

Q. What was the structure of the Working Group?

A. The group formed two sub-groups, an industry sub-group and a welfare organisations sub-group. Both of these groups each nominated three scientists or veterinarians with relevant scientific expertise to form an academic sub-group.

The industry and welfare organisations sub-groups submitted ‘submissions’ referencing external evidence, mostly published scientific articles. The academic sub-group was then asked to evaluate the quality of this evidence and draw a conclusion.

Subsequently, the industry and welfare organisations sub-groups also had a chance to submit their views on the legal and regulatory context as they saw it.

The Chair of the whole group, Mike Radford, then wrote a report based on the academic group’s conclusions and the wider context.

Q. How many circuses are there in the UK?

A. There are currently four circuses that use non-domesticated animals in their Acts, the information below was supplied by the Industry sub-group.

The Great British Circus	1 Kangaroo 2 Llamas 4 Reindeer 5 Lions 7 Tigers 7 Camels 1 Zebra
Bobby Robert's Super Circus	1 Elephant (touring, but retired from performance) 1 camel
Circus Mondao	3 Zebras 2 Llamas and acquiring 2 Camels
Jollys’ Circus	2 crocodiles 1 Zebra 1 Ankole 1 Llama 6 Snakes

There are five further circuses that use domesticated animals only (mainly dogs and horses).

Q. How are circus animals currently protected?

A. The Animal Welfare Act 2006 prevents unnecessary cruelty or suffering to any vertebrate animal.

In addition, it introduced a new ‘duty of care’ for any animal under the control of man, which makes owners and keepers responsible for ensuring that the welfare needs of their animals are met. This duty applies to animals kept in circuses just as to pets, farmed animals and other domestic and companion animals.

The five welfare needs include the need:

For a suitable environment (place to live);
For a suitable diet;
To exhibit normal behaviour patterns;
To be housed with, or apart from, other animals (if applicable);
To be protected from pain, injury, suffering and disease.

Q. How is this enforced in relation to circuses?

A. The Animal Welfare Act 2006 is a ‘common informers’ Act. This means that any individual or group can take a prosecution under the Act. The RSPCA take the lead on enforcing the Animal Welfare Act in relation to domestic and companion animals. However, they do not have any formal enforcement powers, such as power of entry or inspection. Nevertheless, we do not know of any cases where an RSPCA inspector has been refused entry on request for inspection at a circus. In addition, local authorities have formal powers of entry and inspection, which they frequently use to inspect circuses.

Q. What about Wales and Scotland?

A. Any future Regulations on the welfare of wild animals in circuses will apply to England only. The Welsh Assembly has the power to make Regulations relating to Wales under the Animal Welfare Act 2006. Scotland has its own legislation, the Animal Health and Welfare Act (Scotland) 2006. All circuses using wild animals have their winter quarters based in England, have previously travelled to Wales and Scotland during the performance season.

Page last modified: November 20, 2007
Page published: April 2nd, 2007

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs