Icon and long-time animal advocate Pamela Anderson has written to Taoiseach Enda Kenny urging him to support the Prohibition of Wild Animals in Circuses Bill 2017, which was recently moved by Paul Murphy TD.
“Animals in circuses never benefit from ‘the luck of the Irish.’ Instead, they’re denied everything that is natural and important to them”, Anderson writes in a letter sent on behalf of PETA. “Today, most decent people see animal circuses for what they are: cruelty.”
“I truly hope Ireland seizes this opportunity to implement a national ban and joins the ever-growing list of countries that have banished this archaic form of so-called entertainment”, she continues. “I would love nothing more than to raise a glass of Guinness (I hear it’s vegan now!) with you when that day arrives.”
PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment” – notes that Austria, Croatia, and the Netherlands are among the many countries that have introduced bans on wild-animal circuses, while several local authorities – including Arklow, Dublin City, Galway, Kildare City, Monaghan, and Waterford – have banned these acts from public land.
In 2016, Anderson was named PETA’s Person of the Year for her efforts to encourage vegan eating and in calling for a ban on cruelly produced foie gras, among many other actions for animals. On Saturday, she appeared on Brendan O’Carroll’s new RTE chat show All Round to Mrs Brown’s – joined by fellow PETA supporter Louis Walsh, who has also lent his support to the group’s work to see an end to wild-animal circuses.
