PERFORMING ANIMALS [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,— Presiding at
the opening luncheon of a London Circus, Lord Lonsdale is reported to have stated that the -R.S.P.C-.A,- condenin performing animal turns on - the ground that the animals were " transported in horse-boxes. Are not horses taken to race meetings in the same way ; dogs to dog shoirs, and'cattle to cattle shows ? " I do not know—if the report is correct----on what LOrd Lonsdale bases his remarks. The Society has never made such a statement, and if the performing animals had only to- travel occasionally in horse-boxes or a cattle truck, little could be said against_ such a eustom. Ample evidence was given before the HOuse of Commons Select Committee on Performing Animals to establish the existence of cruelty both in training and -in exhibition. Ample evidence was also given by-members of the theatrical profession as to the suffering of the -animals kept in constant confinement in their travelling cages, eirates,-or. boxes and travelled from town to-town in -these receptacles.. These animals spend most of their lives, except when -training, rehearsing or performing, in the close- confinement of-their- travelling cages, often under the stage and if, as is the case in---
Instances, they are Continental animals and come under the IMPOrtatiou of Dogs Order, they cannot be allowed their liberty because of the quarantine regulations. This is an aspect of the case which an audience, thrilled by the whole liaise-en-seine of a circus, does not evidently consider.—I am, Sir, &c., E. G. Fanuiouln (Captain, Chief Secretary).
R.S.P.C.A., 105 Jermyn Street, S.W. 1.
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