Like many of you, I have witnessed the spectacle and awe of visiting the circus in my childhood.  And I’ll bet that most of us did this without really thinking about the welfare implications of the animals involved at the time.  It was just a bit of innocent entertainment.

 

This week, the issue of animal welfare in circuses is being brought to the forefront, with a Parliamentary debate dedicated to examining the key concerns for many of our constituents.

 

Judging from my postbag, the welfare of circus animals is an emotive issue.  So I am proud to write back that in Britain we have some of the most rigorous standards for the protection of animals in the world, as set out in the Animal Welfare Act 2006. 

 

The current issue for debate is whether there should be an outright ban on the use of animals in circuses, or whether a stricter licensing regime is the better option.  It is the way in which we further secure the safety and good treatment of circus animals that is under scrutiny and it certainly promises to be an educational and informative debate.

 

There were, reassuringly, just 39 wild animals being used in UK circuses in the summer of 2009 and only 3 circuses using them.  One of the dangers of an outright ban is that it may lead to a legal challenge at the European level which might be detrimental to the good animal welfare that we want.

 

We are between a rock and a hard place and I look forward to a well-considered conclusion following Thursday’s debate.  Thankfully, this debate is not whether or not we want good animal welfare - it is about how we go about securing it.  We’ve already come a long way and I hope that my happy childhood memories of the good nature of the circus will be justified for the future.