Cases of Circus Cruelty

Outlaw the Animal Circus!

Circuses have from time to time been found guilty of specific acts of cruelty:

• February 1980, the Monte Carlo International Circus was charged with failing to conform with minimum cage requirements.
  
  
• 1983, the Director of Circus Startime (later Circus Santos) was found guilty of failing to conform with caging regulations.
  
  
• A bear trainer from Edgley's World's Greatest Circus Spectacular pleaded guilty to a charge of overcrowding.
  
  
• Stafford Bullen, of Bullen's Circus, was convicted of cruelty because a monkey had a chain embedded in its neck.
  
  
• 1984,Sole Brothers' Circus was convicted of cruelty to a camel, whose halter was embedded in its nose.
  
  
• December 1984, the proprietor of Silvers' Circus was convicted of cruelty to lion cubs. They were unable to walk, emaciated and suffering from malnutrition, calcium deficiency, worms and mange.
  
  
• March 1991, NSW Environment Minister, Tim Moore, refused Sole Brothers' Circus a permit to import 9 trained lions from Papua New Guinea. The Minister said: "Sole Brothers' Circus has failed to meet the standards required under the Exhibited Animals Protection Act and has been unable to demonstrate that the lions, if imported, would be housed to the standards considered acceptable in New South Wales."