Ban Wild Animals in Circuses and Zoos

French Environment Minister Barbara Pompili announced at the end of September that France will phase out both the keeping of wild animals in travelling circuses and the keeping of dolphins in zoos.

Specifically, this means: no imports, no breeding, and within the next two years the transfer of captive orcas to supervised marine sanctuaries; the other dolphins are also to be relocated. The country is even considering establishing its own marine refuges to prevent the dolphins from being transferred to other zoos. Circus companies are to be supported in transitioning to programmes without wild animals, and their employees will be offered retraining on request. Against this backdrop, PETA wrote to Svenja Schulze last week. In its letter, the animal rights organisation appealed to the Environment Minister to follow the example of her French counterpart.

We call on Minister Schulze to no longer allow wild animals such as elephants, big cats, and marine mammals to be locked up and degraded to circus clowns for the entertainment of paying visitors. Germany is fast becoming one of the EU’s most backward countries when it comes to animal welfare – it is high time to finally consign the captivity and exploitation of sentient beings to the history books here as well.

PETA’s biologists Dr. Tanja Breining and Dr. Yvonne Würz.

The three dolphinariums in France are no longer permitted to take in dolphins, and breeding is also prohibited. In addition, the country has announced that the four orcas at Marineland Zoo in Antibes are to be relocated to a sanctuary. Sanctuaries are supervised marine refuges where the animals can live as naturally and autonomously as possible in “semi-freedom”.

PETA is campaigning for similar measures to be introduced in Germany as well. According to representative surveys, the majority of Germans oppose dolphinariums just as much as they oppose the keeping of wild animals in circuses. Yet despite catastrophically cramped conditions in Duisburg, the lagoon disaster in Nuremberg, and a long chronicle of deaths at both zoos, the two remaining German zoological facilities housing dolphins are still permitted to exploit the animals for breeding and transfer them back and forth between one another.

While certain animal species have already been banned from the circus ring in most European countries, elephants, giraffes, primates, big cats, and many other animals continue to be transported by truck from city to city in German circus operations.

Since PETA does not expect any major progress on animal welfare issues from Federal Agriculture Minister Julia Klöckner, the organisation has now turned to the Ministry of the Environment.