Ring of Cruelty - An Investigation into Animal Circuses in Ireland in 2006

Other wild / exotic animals

Tigers caged at Duffy's Circus

This lorry is 'home' to alligators

A young wallaby at Circus Sydney

A camel at Fossett's Circus

Tigers
Tom Duffy’s Circus has four Bengal and Siberian tigers, presented by Tommy Chipperfield.

Acts include jumping between pedestals, all four sitting up and lying down and a hind-leg stand.

Outside of the ring, the tigers are housed in a ‘beastwagon’ – a traditional circus lorry with cages built into it. The tigers have access to an ‘exercise cage’ which is simply a small cage attached to the lorry. The ‘exercise’ area provides no real opportunity for exercise and has no obvious enrichment.

Alligators
Tom Duffy’s Circus has four alligators, used in an act that includes a display of large snakes. The alligators are walked around the ring with a presenter occasionally holding their mouths open.

When not used in the circus ring the alligators are housed in small enclosure built into a lorry.

Wallabies
On our first two visits to Circus Sydney, the show’s Australian theme appeared to come solely from an act involving a two-year-old wallaby who, the vet stated “had to be carried into the ring and was clearly frightened by the noise and keeps trying to leave, but is restrained by a harness. Kangaroos of any species are prey animals and are not normally solitary. There is no excuse for carting this frightened animal around the country and exposing it to the sights and sounds and deprivations of a circus existence.”

Children were actively encouraged to reach over the ringside barrier and touch the wallaby.

A third visit to this circus by CAPS at the end of July 2006 found that there were now four wallabies.

Ostrich
Circus Sydney also had the only ostrich in an Irish circus, named Kylie.

Samantha Lindley: “Its ‘trick’ is to lie flat on the ground. This is the natural behaviour of the threatened ostrich and would hardly need much reinforcing.”

Ostriches tend to be nomadic and live in groups of 5 to 50 individuals – again this animal in living in unnatural isolation in this circus.”

Camels
Camels are social animals, normally living in herds of up to ten individuals.

Fossett’s Circus: The only animal act at Fossett’s Circus consisted of three camels.

One camel had bandaging on both rear legs, but without conducting a veterinary examination it is unclear why.

There was no opportunity to see the animals or their housing before or after the show.

Royal Russian Circus: This circus has two camels, running around the ring a few times with one then standing with his front legs on the ringside barrier leaning over the audience. Samantha Lindley: “There was no restraint and nothing apart from the power of whatever training it had received to stop it continuing onwards into the crowd.”

The camels were observed after the show, one tethered to a pole, the other loose.

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