Animal Circuses to be Banned in UK after Animal Cruelty Exposed?

abused circus elephant anne in the UK

Well, here’s some good news out of the UK. As I shared on here recently and have from time to time, circus animals often live quite inhumane lives. Undercover footage (below) of the horrible treatment inflicted upon 59-year-old Asian elephant Anne, part of a UK travelling circus, brought this fact to the eyes of hundreds of thousands of people around the world recently. Anne, who has been in captivity for 50 years, was kicked or hit hard with a metal pitchfork 48 times over the course of 3 and a half weeks in January and February a recent undercover investigation by Animal Defenders International found (and filmed). Northamptonshire police and the RSPCA subsequently investigated the situation as a result of this video. (Note that she is repeatedly beat in here back right knee — she has arthritis.)

The result, which is why this is good news, is that Anne has finally been taken away from the “Bobby Roberts Super Circus” and given to more considerate caretakers at Longleat Safari Park. Furthermore, UK Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman announced a plan to ban the inclusion of wild animals in circuses.

A total ban is apparently coming very soon. Although it seems to have taken far too long, and there are still many countries around the world without such a ban, this is uplifting news and I was more than happy to read this today.

From the site where I ran across the news on the complete circus animal ban first, TreeHugger, Stephen Messenger makes an excellent closing statement:

they aren’t merely animals in our world; rather, we are merely animals in theirs.”

That seems to be the most accurate statement after watching the video above.

Photo via downing.amanda

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top