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Comments from supporters
I have supported CAPS for several years now and think it’s amazing that it has been helping animals for so long. The main thing that has impressed me about CAPS is its determination to uncover animal abuse not only in zoos and circuses but wherever they are incarcerated for man’s selfish gain.
Long may CAPS continue to carry the banner for captive animals all over the world and lots of luck for the next 50 years!
Susan Cooper, Blackpool
I cannot think of a worthier organisation than CAPS. Nor can I think a worthier team of individuals who devote their time and efforts to this cause.
I personally cannot comprehend what life would be like for the caged animals without CAPS. It is our responsibility to ensure that CAPS continues its work.
Here’s to another 50 years!
Vivian Craggs, Surrey
I have been a CAPS member for more than 20 years. Your tireless campaigning has certainly impressed me. The way you persist in opening doors that otherwise would be slammed shut on most of us. The most phenomenal being the Blackpool Tower Circus where many poor animals languished in the cellar year after year.
Keep up the good work.
Frances Gavin, Blackpool
As a child in the early 1950s I was taken with a friend and her parents to a circus in London. It was my first and only experience of a circus and elephants, lions and other animals were included in the performance. Instead of enjoying the show I was overcome with feelings of distress for those pitiful animals. In my childish way I could not understand why anyone would want to watch such a cruel spectacle. Those childhood feelings have had a life-long effect on me.
At some time in the 1980s I heard about CAPS, then based in Hove, and attended an AGM. The excellent guest speaker was Richard Adams, author of Watership Down. I was so pleased to discover an organisation dedicated to ending animal circuses. I joined CAPS and served as a committee member until its relocation to Blackpool. Although now retired and unable to be an active member, I continue to support the valuable and dedicated work of CAPS.
Norah Granger, Brighton
I have been a member and active supporter of CAPS for 20 years now. Why? Because, as an animal lover I am very impressed by the way this hard working organisation is 100% committed to helping captive animals both here and abroad.
Living in Blackpool, I have had the privilege of working actively with CAPS on three very important projects – to successfully close the Blackpool Tower Circus, then the animal circus at the Pleasure Beach and finally to highlight conditions at Blackpool Zoo.
I will always support CAPS and encourage other people to do the same.
Josephine Harwood, Blackpool
I remember Irene Heaton as an elderly and very determined lady. As soon as she discovered that I had an interest in the welfare of animals she wasn't going to let me escape. When I became a local Councillor she fed me all sorts of information that was really useful during debates. I was far less forceful in those days and I remember standing outside a circus that was being held on Hove Lawns holding one of CAPS’ banners and praying I wouldn't see anyone I knew! Irene had no such qualms.
Irene would be really proud of CAPS today, what progress the organisation has made. How well it communicates its message and how skillfully it has focused its resources to obtain real results. It is just what Irene, Jim and Marjorie Sutcliffe and all those early pioneers would have hoped for.
The real tribute will be when CAPS is no longer needed. Sadly I fear that day is a long way off.
Frances Lindsay Hills (nee Hix), Brighton
Reading about the 50th anniversary of the founding of CAPS awakened my memories of the past.
In November 1978, my husband and I visited a circus in Nuneaton. Our intention was to get the borough council to ban the circus on health grounds because some of the councillors refused to accept that cruelty to animals existed in circuses.
The squalid condition of the circus site with piles of faeces surrounding the cages was appalling. The tented stables where horses and ponies were confined were filthy. The two bears, each crammed into cages 3ft wide and 8ft in depth were showing signs of stress. Elephants were tightly chained by one front leg and one back leg for 23 hours out of the 24. The condition of the big cats was equally shocking.
At the time we owed a great debt to Marjorie and Jim Sutcliffe of CAPS who gave us information about the conditions in which circus animals were kept. Above all, I remember how Stefan Ormrod came and spoke to the borough council for us and obtained a ban on animal circuses using council owned land.
Margaret House, Surrey
I wanted to thank CAPS for its excellent work over the years, and say how much I have valued the organisation in the time that I have been involved as a supporter. The many leaflets and posters, together with the extensive undercover video and photographic archive materials that the organisation makes readily available, have proved to be invaluable in local campaign work. We have achieved real successes in combating animal cruelty in our area by using CAPS to underpin our local group's work, persuading many local people, using the educational materials provided by CAPS (free of charge), to boycott the travelling circuses which have sadly continued to surface every now and again, and to understand the truth about the nightmare that animals endure in our local zoo (and zoos everywhere).
To be able to reach (and convince) adults and children alike with the message has been really rewarding, and I think this is one of CAPS' strengths - making the message accessible to all. In recent years being able to refer people to the website has been invaluable too.
On a personal note I will always be grateful for CAPS' help whilst working as a volunteer in Kenya about 10 years ago. I was faced with the awful task of having to leave the country (and my extensive brood of animals) in a hurry, after falling out with the 'powers that be' over (ironically) human rights abuses. After receiving my plea for help, CAPS enabled me to re-home my many rescue animals before I had to leave, by putting me in touch with organisations and individuals that were able to assist. It was a harrowing experience and CAPS offered me a lifeline. I thought it was time I voiced a 'thank you' to all at CAPS who work so tirelessly for the rights of animals. You are doing a brilliant job - keep up the good work.
Louise Paton, Blackpool
I am proud to congratulate CAPS on reaching its fiftieth successful year. Unlike the larger organisations, CAPS has always had to work with few resources, but with a constant wealth of dedication to animal welfare contributed by a few human beings. The great progress since 1957 in improvements to zoos, and the vast reduction in numbers of animals abused simply for entertainment purposes is directly due to that chain of human dedication. Best Wishes.
Bill Stubbs, Wigan
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