A Victorian council has banned circuses with caged wild animals from performing on its land as a sign of progressing with society’s modern views on the treatment of animals.
The Surf Coast Shire has passed the motion banning the containment of animals for “entertainment purposes” at a council meeting in Winchelsea on Tuesday night after it was put forward by Cr Margot Smith, a director of the RSPCA.
Cr Smith said nowadays people have become more aware of animal welfare and circuses with caged animals should be a thing of the past.
“I believe society has moved on quite a bit on our animal welfare issues,” Cr Smith told the Geelong Advertiser.
“This is not really something that is as acceptable as it was some years ago.”
The council officers will now investigate how to best implement the ban with moves to ask the Great Ocean Road Coast Committee, who manage the land between Spring Creek and Surf Beach Drive where circus events have performed in the past, to embrace a similar move.
The animal ban was apparently prompted by an incident in Torquay a few years ago involving an elephant tethered to a pole for hours outside a tent and Cr Smith told the ABC the council was inundated with complaints.
The RSPCA took to Facebook to applaud the SCS council decision stating: “Over many years, the RSPCA has campaigned to stop the use of exotic animals in circuses… We feel exotic animals belong in their natural environment, and not in cages.”
Many in the online community have celebrated the decision.
Comments from the RSPCA Facebook page.
Comments from the RSPCA Facebook page.
Comments from the RSPCA Facebook page.
However in response to the ban Eroni’s Circus – a circus owned and operated by the 6th and 7th generations of the Maynard circus dynasty who specialise in local animal shows – took to Facebook to vehemently oppose the decision via a lengthy statement.
The post read: “The This ban is apparently to prohibit the use of exotic species of circus animal performing within your shire, however even domestic animal circuses such as our own, have also been unable to perform in the region.
“Unfortunately we find that emotional hysteria and hypocrisy often overrides any fair, objective assessment of performing circus animals.”
Thirty five other councils around Australia already support the RSPCA’s position and have banned circuses with caged wild animals from performing on their land.
