Circuses, mini-zoos draw ire of activists

Exotic animals are forced to perform dangerous stunts and kept in squalid conditions

LAHORE:

NGOs, legal experts and activists working for animal rights and conservation across the country have demanded an immediate ban on mobile mini-zoos and circuses in various districts of Punjab.

The National Alliance of Animal Rights Activists and Advocates (NARA) sent a request to the Secretaries for Local Government, Forestry and Wildlife, Anti-Cruelty to Animals and Livestock, Commissioner Lahore and Kushman Rawalpindi informing them that circuses are being set up in various cities of Punjab by a private circus company.

In the circus, lions, tigers and other dangerous animals are being forced to perform different stunts, while a mobile mini zoo built in the circus is keeping animals like tigers, monkeys, wild boars, jackals, lizards and snakes in cramped cages.

NARA focal person Aniza Khan Umarzai stated that keeping such animals is not only inhumane but illegal as per the Wildlife Act and the Local Government Safety Act.

She decried that these animals were used in circuses in Faisalabad and Lahore earlier this week, further expressing her surprise that government agencies issued NOCs to set up circuses in contravention with the law. Circus owners have NOCs for setting up circuses in almost all major cities of Punjab.

According to Umarzai, Rawalpindi's wildlife authorities are not ready to take action, while the Wildlife Department sent a team after receiving several complaints in Lahore.

However, someone from the team reportedly informed the circus management about the inspection and confiscation of their animals so they moved them somewhere else before the raid.

NARA demanded the authorities take strict action against the circus and any informants, as well as officials who provided NOCs without proper inquiry and investigation.

Animals languishing in the mini-zoo are being kept in dark, dirty and cramped cages.

Activists have demanded that all those animals be confiscated from the circus organizers and transferred to a better environment. Animals hidden by the circus management should also be found.

On the other hand, a Punjab Wildlife spokesperson said that action has been taken against a circus in Lahore and wildlife staff recovered two pigs and two eagles from the circus, releasing them in the Karol forest near the River Ravi.

However, sources allege that wildlife authorities did not confiscate the animals after taking bribes in the hundreds of thousands of rupees from circus management.

Additionally, the two wild boars seized are not safe and are common in Punjab.

Earlier this week, Deputy Secretary Punjab Wildlife Mudassir Hasan said that circuses and keeping animals are allowed in the Wildlife Act, but no rules or SOPs have been made with regards to the living conditions of the animals.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 21^st, 2023.