Animal madness!

Animals in circuses can also pose a risk to human safety, and this was illustrated last year when the Courtney Brothers Circus made headlines around the world when one of its five elephants escaped in Cork, running through a public car park and onto a road. Two days later, at the same circus, a trainer was crushed and hospitalised while attempting to break up a fight between two elephants which tested positive for drugs.

Among the animals used by Tom Duffy’s Circus are horses, ponies, llamas, donkeys, zebra, lions and tigers.

On the circus website it states that their animals are extremely well looked after by a specialised team of animal carers.

‘Our animal carers live, work and care for our animals 24 hours a day, seven days a week,’ according to the website. ‘We take great pride in our animals and the level of care we provide to them.’

However, animal rights organisations have criticised this visit, saying that a circus animal’s life can also be a violent one.

In 1995 a man had both his arms ripped off by tigers at Duffy’s Circus near Galway, with the organisers claiming the man had broken into the animals’ trailer.

Vicious beatings were also inflicted on Anne the elephant, whose owner Bobby Roberts was found guilty of three charges of cruelty under the Animal Welfare Act in November 2012.

Jan Creamer, Chief Executive of Animal Defenders International, pointed out that animals with travelling circuses are on the road for almost the entire year.

“That means they have to endure constant transportation and live in rudimentary, temporary accommodation. Worse are the horrific abuses during training that Animal Defenders International has exposed behind the scenes in circuses, not just in Ireland but all over the world,” she said. “We urge people to visit circuses with human only acts – those acts have a choice.”

Over 20 countries around the world have now prohibited either all animals in circuses or wild animals and several more are working on legislation. In Ireland, the issue is of increasing importance to local authorities, with motions to ban wild animal acts passed in Monaghan, Drogheda, Waterford and Wicklow in 2012 alone.

John Carmody, Campaigns Director of ARAN said the animal circus is becoming a less frequent – and less welcome – sight across Ireland as people become more informed about welfare issues.

“It’s no fun watching animals suffer and it’s only a matter of time before we see a cross-Ireland ban on wild animal acts,” he added.

Duffy’s Circus is also due to visit Omagh from May 1 to 3.