WILD ANIMALS IN CIRCUS
The Animal Welfare Act
​The Animal Welfare Act 2006 (AWA) is the only Federal law in the United States that regulates the treatment of animals in research, exhibition, transport, and by dealers. Guidelines were set up in Germany in 1990 in connection with the Animal Welfare Act for keeping and training animals at a circus (Schmid 1995; Friend & Parker 1999). The guidelines simply stated that elephants were to be kept in unshackled groups in a paddocks for at least one hour per day. Conforming to USDA (2016), this act requires that ​minimum standard of care and treatment is provided for animals that are bred for commercial sale, used in research, transported commercially, or exhibited to the public. The Key requirements​ are duty of care and unnecessary suffering (Francine, 1994).
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Problems with this law?
AWA provides vague and minimal standards for keeping animals for exhibitions..
Only requires that animals have enough room to stand up and turn around when they are confined
Vague standards with poorly defined terms which is the reason why the law is so frequently violated.
Regional Bans
All member states have animal welfare legislation which is normally applied to wild animals in circuses. National, regional, and local governments in at least 30 countries have banned the use of wild animals in circuses. However, Australian Federal and State policies are not falling these guidelines. (Harris, 2001). Many communities in Canada have adopted by-laws which reject the use of wild animals in circuses. As stated by the SPCA, there are 20 municipalities within British Columbia that have banned circuses from using wild animals. For example, Cirque du Soleil in Canada is an example of a circus who have stopped using animals in their circuses and are now operating animal free. Although Regional bans are supported, they are only applied to council- owned property.