the Portugal I decided to ban wild animals In offers circus By 2024. Lions, tigers, elephants, camels and zebras: This ban will include more than 1,100 animals belonging to about forty species, according to a law passed by Parliament on Tuesday evening and welcomed by animal rights associations on Wednesday.
By 2024, circus owners will have to register these animals on a platform that will be created soon, while the government will have to regulate the placement of these animals in reception centers, in Portugal or abroad. Entertainment professionals who agree to give up their animals before the end of the transition period will also be able to benefit from assistance for their professional retraining.
“The place for wild animals is not in the circus.”
“This law has been eagerly awaited. Wild animals do not belong in circuses. People should be able to have a good time without the animals suffering,” said Bianca Santos, vice president of the Portuguese association AZP, which campaigns for animal welfare.
MP Andre Silva, from the People's Party, said: “Parliament finally realized that bigger cages, stricter rules or more controls were not a solution to the problem of these animals, who have been turned into simple puppets, and whose dignity has been robbed of them.” The Animals and Nature Party (PAN), which first introduced a bill on the subject almost a year ago.
Thus, Portugal joins forty countries in the world
With the approval of the law this week thanks to the votes of representatives from both the left and the right, which provides for a six-year transition period, Portugal will join the European Union. Forty countries in the worldHalf of them are in Europe, which already limits the use of animals in circuses.
The association, which represents about twenty Portuguese circuses, opposed this law, according to a press release It “contributes to the disappearance” of this sector.
