Dear Members & Supporters,

News just in - Paraguay has banned animal-act circuses! Animal Rights Action Network (ARAN) and Animal Defenders International (ADI) applaud Paraguay for becoming the latest country to ban the use of wild animals in circuses under Resolution 2002/12 passed this week by the Secretary of the Ministry of the Environment (Secretaría del Medio Ambiente).  Since ADI launched a major undercover investigation of animals in circuses in South America in 2007, a series of bans have swept across the continent as Governments have acted decisively to end the suffering of these animals. Bans are in place in Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and now Paraguay. Legislation for a ban passed its second reading in Colombia earlier this year and legislation for a ban is well advanced in Brazil.

Jan Creamer President Animal Defenders International: "We congratulate the Paraguayan Government for taking this progressive stand and everyone who has worked to secure this ban. This confirms how people all over the world are realizing that it is no longer acceptable to confine, deprive and abuse animals in the name of entertainment. You have to also ask why countries like the Ireland, the USA and UK have fallen so far behind on this issue.”

John Carmody, ARAN: "More and more local authorities in Ireland are either considering a ban on the use of wild animals and now we will be stepping up the pressure for a national ban. With ADI we have exposed physical abuse, confinement and deprivation in Irish circuses, and in these past months we have seen the public put at great risk with an elephant escaping from a circus and a trainer seriously injured. If countries like Paraguay and Greece are ending this archaic suffering, surely we can do the same in Ireland."

The Traveling Exotic Animal Protection Act which would ban the use of wild animals in circuses throughout the USA is currently before Congress. The British Government recently promised to introduce a ban at the earliest opportunity. There are over 20 countries with similar measures already in place.  ADI dramatically enforced the Bolivian ban last year, raiding eight circuses that had defied the law and rescuing and relocating every animal – including transporting 29 lions to the USA.  In the UK, on 18th June, the trial commences of the owners of Anne the elephant, on charges of failure of their responsibilities under the Animal Welfare Act 2006.