The French parliament voted to stop the use of wild animals in live circus performances and to ban mink farming in the new animal rights legislation, hailed by activists as a step forward.
According to a wide-ranging law passed on Thursday, performances of wild animals such as lions, tigers or bears will be banned for two years and banned within seven years.
Once the new regulations are signed into law by President Emmanuel Macron, live dolphin shows and mink farming will also be banned, which means that the country’s last mink producer will be closed.
Macron’s Centrist Republican Movement (LREM) party called the legislation a “historic step in the struggle for animal rights,” while former actor and animal rights activist Brigitte Bardot welcomed the “significant progress”.
However, the circus owner condemned it, and some activists said it was not doing enough.
In addition to measures against circuses, the new law will increase the maximum penalty for cruelty to animals to five years in prison and a fine of 75,000 euros ($85,000), and will tighten restrictions on pet sales.
Loïc Dombreval, the co-sponsor of the LREM law, admitted that other controversial issues were not included in the legislation, which won cross-party support from both houses of parliament.
“Inevitably one day… we will debate sensitive issues such as hunting, bullfighting or some animal feeding behaviors,” said the lawmaker, who is also a veterinarian.
Opinion polls show that the vast majority of French people support the prohibition of wild circus animals, and dozens of cities and towns across the country have already banned them.
Public opinion Europe After exposing the cruel treatment of rights groups and campaigning activities, the animal circus was once a popular form of family entertainment and decisively opposed the animal circus.
In recent years, several incidents in France have added momentum to the ban, including the death of a sick bear named Mischa rescued from an animal trainer in 2019, and Shot and killed an escaped tiger in Paris in 2017.
The tigress named Mevy escaped from her enclosure in Cirque Bormann-Moreno and began roaming the streets of the French capital before being shot and killed by her owner in the name of public safety.
France lags behind about 20 European countries that have banned or severely restricted the use of animals for entertainment.
Environmentalists and more radical animal rights groups hope that the new law will improve conditions on industrialized animal farms.
The L214 organization, which had sought protection for “over 1 billion intensively farmed animals” in France, welcomed the legislation but expressed “lack of courage”.
The organization made a name for itself in France by sending its militants to slaughterhouses to go undercover, and then posting videos of often shocking scenes of animals being abused or cut while alive.
The farms that make foie gras in France — where birds such as geese and ducks are forced to swell their livers artificially — have long been the target of activists, but the new law will not change the way they do business.
Supporters firmly defend hunting as a traditional rural pastime, which is essential for controlling animal numbers, and bullfighting is still part of the local culture in some towns in southern France.
120 circus owners in France may protest the new restrictions and warn that some animals may eventually be abandoned.
“This is an arbitrary law because there is no cruelty to animals in our circus,” William Kovich, chairman of the circus animal trainers union, told AFP.
He said his members would respond on Monday and file a legal appeal.
