A few weeks ago, you were kind enough to publish a letter from me on the rescue of lions from a Bolivian circus under a picture of a magnificent lion.

May I now draw your readers’ attention to a circus problem much nearer home?

The recent exposé by Animals Defenders International (020 7630 3340) of the brutal treatment meted out to an elephant in a British circus highlighted once again that circuses are no place for animals.

For more than a decade, there have been similar horror stories from the UK as footage has been released of different animals being physically abused and forced to live in confined and deprived conditions.

Travelling circus animals are the only animals forced to live in temporary, mobile accommodation for almost the entire year.

Facilities that need to be dismantled and moved every week will, by their very nature, be restricted and lacking enrichment.

In addition, the nature of the circus requiring wild animals to perform totally unnatural tricks means that a very close level of control is required, and that is surely at the root of all the physical abuse that has been caught on film.

The welfare of all animals will be compromised in this environment, but it is perhaps most acute for wild animals such as lions, tigers, elephants and camels.

Since 2006, the Government has had an opportunity to ban the use of wild animals in circuses.

May I urge anyone who is appalled by the treatment of Anne the elephant, and the whole concept of closely confining wild animals for the purpose of displaying them doing futile and unnatural tricks, to contact their MP and ask them to press for the ban of wild animals in circuses?

Jenny Grainge
Whitefriars Avenue, Harrow Weald