The BSPCA is disappointed to read that the authorities have allowed a circus to perform in Bahrain only two and a half years since the last visiting circus left five mature lions and tigers and a lion cub without proper care, exercise or vet attention for more than two months.

The government, after weeks of discussions with the Culture Ministry, eventually allowed the BSPCA to intervene. However, it was too late. The BSPCA arranged for a big cat veterinary specialist from the Born Free Foundation in the UK to be flown out but the cub died of kidney failure due to dehydration and starvation before the specialist could arrive.

The BSPCA deplores this type of outdated entertainment which sentences animals to a life of cruel imprisonment and mistreatment. They are confined in small cages and prodded to perform tricks completely unnatural to the animal’s normal behaviour.

Short of a complete ban on such “entertainment”, the society urgently requests that the Culture Ministry, which issues permits for such visiting acts, ensures the animals are provided with adequate space and regular vet checks to prevent such a sad situation from occurring again. The ministry should also ensure that the owners have made suitable provision for the immediate departure of their big cats when the circus leaves Bahrain. The ministry had promised the society that the circus would not return to Bahrain unless it had booked return transportation for its animals.

The society’s executive committee urgently requests the Culture Ministry to reassess the way in which they bring this type of entertainment to Bahrain. Modern circus do not have animals performing tricks. It is recognised that caging wild animals and treating them cruelly to provide shallow entertainment is unacceptable in a civilised world. The modern circus provides excellent family entertainment with jugglers, clowns, trapeze artists performing for the public in an exciting and colourful Big Top atmosphere. But there is no room in this modern day for activity that involves extreme cruelty to any animal by confining it to a cage to be taunted, humiliated and cruelly taught tricks for the sake of “entertainment”.
BSPCA