Delhi High Court Calls On Central Government to Clarify Stance on Prohibiting Animals in Circuses in PETA India Petition

For Immediate Release:

9 February 2022

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Delhi – Today, in public interest litigation filed by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India, a division bench of the Delhi High Court headed by Justice Vipin Sanghi directed the central government to clarify its stance regarding its proposal to prohibit the use of animals in circuses within four weeks. The government had notified the draft Performing Animals (Registration) (Amendment) Rules, 2018, and received public comments on it. The court observed that the delay in notifying the Rules may severely impact the wellbeing and protection of animals.

The court also directed the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) to conduct a survey of all circuses whose registrations with the AWBI have not been renewed and to report on the status of animals held by them within eight weeks. The AWBI is the prescribed authority under The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PCA) Act, 1960, and regulates the use of animals for performances. The court directed that the AWBI involve the representatives of the petitioner, PETA India, and others during the surveys.

The court also pointed out that it is the obligation of the AWBI to take up the issue with local governments and district magistrates when it comes to its attention that any person or organisation is holding any animal without the proper authorisation, so that the animal(s) can be seized and receive appropriate care, in coordination with petitioners. The court observed that under section 32 of the PCA Act, the local police are authorised to search and seize the animals. Dr Aman Hingorani, the lawyer appearing for PETA India, submitted that the organisation has already volunteered to rehabilitate all such animals and provide for them through its network once they are rescued.

“The AWBI has advised the central government multiple times to prohibit the use of animals in circuses, given their inherent cruelty,” says PETA India Principal Legal Counsel Swati Sumbly. “Considering the growing public concern about the use of animals in circuses and in light of the appeals made by hundreds of school students and veterinarians for the practice to end, we urge the central government to notify its 2018 draft prohibiting the use of animals in circuses.”

Based on the recent affidavit filed by the AWBI, the court observed that out of the circuses that had been operating and licensed in India, only four or five have renewed their licences. Other circuses have not complied with the requirement of making full and complete disclosures about the animals they are holding, and renewal of their licence has not been granted. The AWBI states that it is taking action against circuses whose registration has been cancelled or not been renewed, prohibiting them from exhibiting and using animals for performances.

The AWBI has advised the central government to pass legislation to stop the use of animals in circuses in 2017, 2019, and 2020. Last year, the Central Zoo Authority cancelled its recognition of the Great Golden Circus, the only circus which was still using protected wild animals – namely elephants – for performances.

Appeals sent by 100 veterinarians from different states and a petition signed by 1,00,000 students from private and government schools all across the country addressed to the minister of fisheries, animal husbandry and dairying asking to notify rules that would prohibit the use of animals in circuses cited numerous reasons why circuses must be barred from using animals.

Several AWBI inspections and recent investigations by PETA India prove that circuses are cruel: animals are continuously chained or confined to small, barren ages and deprived of veterinary care and adequate food, water, and shelter. Through physical abuse with weapons, they are forced to perform confusing, uncomfortable, and even painful tricks, and they’re denied everything that’s natural and important to them. Many display stereotypic, repetitive behaviour indicative of extreme stress.

PETA India – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment” – opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETAIndia.com or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

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