DEFRA To Spend Nearly £300,000 Of Public Money On Developing A Licensing Scheme For Wild Animals In Circuses

Animal Defenders International (ADI) is appalled to hear that DEFRA plans to spend £261,000 on developing a licensing scheme for wild animals in circuses, when the majority of members of parliament (63%) and members of the public (94.5%) have already stated that they want to see a ban. Jan Creamer, Chief Executive of ADI said: "This is a political and ethical matter that should be decided by the majority public will. Yet the Government has repeatedly ignored the public and parliamentary will on this issue. We asked this question because Defra had already revealed in their impact assessment that a licensing scheme would cost £75,600 as a one-off cost as well as annual costs of £19,400. What is interesting is that Defra has not disclosed how much they have already spent on a licensing scheme, which flies in the face of the decision of the MPs Backbench Committee of the House of Commons in June of last year which directed the Government to ban wild animals in circuses" In a response to a written question from Mike Hancock MP on behalf of ADI, Defra replied that their budget from July 2012 to October 2012 for taking forward the implementation of licensing regulations, as well as developing the case for a ban on the use of performing wild animals in travelling circuses, is estimated at £261,000. No mention is made of how much has been spent to date.

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