No more unsuitable wild animals in circuses
Parliament will once again have to address the demand for restrictions on the keeping of animals in circuses. National Councillor Irène Kälin (Greens, AG) is calling on the Federal Council in a motion to «maintain a list of wild animals that may no longer be taken on circus tours in the future.» The Swiss Animal Protection STS supports the demand for a negative list of animal species banned from circuses.
Parliament will once again have to address the demand for restrictions on the keeping of animals in circuses. National Councillor Irène Kälin (Greens, AG) is calling on the Federal Council in a motion to «maintain a list of wild animals that may no longer be taken on circus tours in the future.» The Swiss Animal Protection STS supports the demand for a negative list of animal species banned from circuses and welcomes the fact that the issue is back on the agenda of the federal chambers.
Switzerland lags behind more than 40 countries
More than 40 countries – including many EU member states – restrict the keeping of animals in circuses on animal welfare grounds. Switzerland is lagging behind. In this country, circuses are permitted to take any species of animal on tour and to keep animals under conditions that violate animal welfare standards. The authorities have their hands tied as long as animal welfare legislation lacks an instrument to ban the taking of unsuitable animal species in circuses.
Under the current Animal Protection Ordinance, enclosures for animals regularly used in a ring do not need to fully comply with the statutory minimum requirements if the spatial conditions at a venue do not permit this. Enclosures may fall short of the minimum surface areas by more than 30%. For two tigers, for example, this leaves only 56 m² of outdoor and 21 m² of indoor enclosure space.
Only two circuses still travel with big cats
The Swiss Animal Protection STS is firmly of the opinion that the current legal frameworks in this country are insufficient to guarantee species-appropriate animal husbandry in a circus, and that certain animal species must no longer be permitted to be taken on tour and presented in the ring. These include, among others, bears, rhinoceroses, elephants, hippopotamuses, great apes, and not least big cats.
In Switzerland, there are only two circuses that repeatedly bring along such wild animals (Circus Gasser-Olympia and Circus Royal). All other circuses voluntarily forgo such animals. Switzerland does not need a special arrangement for two circuses that regularly cause a great deal of animal suffering.
The demand for a blacklist is in line with developments at the European level. The STS supports the motion in the conviction that the quality of a circus is measured not by the exoticism of its menagerie, but by the standard of its animal husbandry and the performances of its artists. More on animal rights and the animal welfare problem.
