Circus roars back at cruelty claims

During show times, a group of protesters place themselves near to the entrance of the circus.

They hold placards such as ‘Honk if you’re against animal cruelty’ or ‘How would you like to be caged?’.

While they are not able to close the circus down, they almost certainly deter some families from pulling in simply for fear of any sort of intimidation or confrontation. And over the years, they have driven circuses out of town centre locations, to privately owned sites such as Dial Post on the fringes of town.

But the Great British Circus have hit out at these protesters, saying that people are smart enough to make up their own minds about the performances.

A spokesman for the circus said that the care they provide is better than in a zoo, that the animals live far longer than they do in the wild, and that the tigers have been born and bred in the circus.

Jeff Link said: “All of our animals are bred in the circus. Our lions and tiger are tenth generation, and live until they are about 20. To see even an 11-year-old tiger in the wild is rare.

“That’s down to their diet, the veterinary care we provide and the regualr exercise we give them.

“The circus care is actually better than a zoo. They have large enclosures at zoos but our animals lve longer because we exercise them three times a day, during rehearsals and then show times.”

Of course, on the other side it’s a very valid point to say that jumping through hoops can hardly be called exercise. COuld you make the same argument, for instance, for Russia’s dancing bears?

Jeff said: “Some people don’t like what we do; some people don’t like horse racing, but we do believe that the people who do like it should have the freedom to visit the circus and don’t need their minds made up for them by protesters.”

“Some of these protesters have hidden agendas and a few of them are very dangerous people.

“But they’re not going to get their way. The circus is thriving in Europe so there cannot be one rule for us and another for the rest of the continent.”

The circus left on Thursday, and now rolls on to godtone where the circus, in every sense of the word, begins again.