Wild Animals (Circuses) Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Baroness McIntosh of Pickering
Main Page: Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Conservative - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Baroness McIntosh of Pickering's debates with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Wild Animals (Circuses)
Baroness McIntosh of Pickering Excerpts(13 years ago)
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Miss Anne McIntosh (Thirsk and Malton) (Con)
I am delighted to report that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State is currently visiting the Pickering “slowing the flow” project at the request of North Yorkshire county council.
Will my hon. Friend assure the House that there will not be a knee-jerk reaction banning all wild animals in circuses until we have taken the best possible legal advice? Is it not a little hypocritical of Parliament to receive, in the House of Commons, performers from circuses that use wild animals, and then to reject those very performers?
Mr Paice
I am sure that my hon. Friend is right. Any Government must take serious heed of the legal advice they are given. Any Ministers who wilfully ignore such advice and risk the Government’s being taken to court and losing are, in my view, neglecting their duty. We have made the right decision: we have taken swift action to deal with the issue of the welfare of circus animals, and I believe that that is the right course.