THE owners of a circus visiting Rainworth this week cannot be surprised by the calls from an animal rights group for residents to boycott performances.
Circus Mondao tours with zebras, horses, goats, llamas, camels and dogs.
A spokesman for the circus has insisted that the safety and welfare of animals is their main priority and that they are inspected regularly by the RSPCA and animal health officers.
- Rainworth circus boycott appeal
That's as maybe. But there are now only a handful of circuses left in the country using animals when once they were a major touring attraction. That, surely, speaks volumes.
No matter how vociferously these operators defend the practice and, like Circus Mondao, stress how much they care for their animals, the fact remains they are totally out of touch with popular opinion.
In this day and age no-one can seriously defend the practice of transporting animals around from one location to another and making them 'perform' as entertainment.
That's not to say that circuses do not still have a place. There are a number of concerns that don't use animals, but keep the magic alive through human skill, and enough members of the public are still happy to pay to see them and make them viable.
That's how it should be.
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