PETA: Ban animals performances and exhibition in circuses

NEW DELHI: As the world battles a deadly disease that allegedly jumped to humans from other animals, PETA India has shot off a letter to the government to notify the draft rules framed under The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, and impose a ban on animal performances and exhibition of all animals in circuses, stating that circuses are travelling carriers of zoonotic diseases.

In the letter to the Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairy, the group pointed out that animals commonly used in circuses could transmit zoonotic diseases to humans, such as tuberculosis from elephants, glanders from horses, psittacosis (parrot fever) from birds, camelpox from camels and the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), which is caused by a coronavirus.

And amid the COVID-19 pandemic, many circuses are stranded at various places and the animals are suffering from lack of water and food, which is unlikely to change for some time as the public continues to be wary of crowds, even as and when the lockdown lifts.

"Hauling stressed and potentially sick animals from town to town for meaningless spectacles is reckless and risky — it's a disaster waiting to happen," said PETA India CEO Manilal Valliyate. (IANS) 

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