‘Maleficent’ star Imelda Staunton, ‘James Bond’ Roger Moore join for circus animal ban

PRESS RELEASE: Sir Roger Moore and Imelda Staunton urge Queen to ensure wild animal circus ban is passed swiftly
 
Honored and award-winning actors Sir Roger Moore KBE, best known as James Bond, and Imelda Staunton OBE, who stars in new Disney film Maleficent have joined Animal Defenders International’s (ADI) Stop Circus Suffering campaign by writing to the Queen to urge her to include a commitment to a wild animal circus ban in her speech at the State Opening of Parliament on 4th June.
 
Sir Roger and Imelda’s letter raises concerns that, despite Government promises, action to bring a ban on wild animals in circuses into law has been slow. Having been honoured by the Queen, they are now urging Her Majesty to include the ban in her speech at the State Opening of Parliament in order to ensure that wild animals do not continue to suffer in British circuses.
 
Last month, David Cameron reaffirmed his commitment to ban wild animal acts to an ADI delegation headed by former Conservative MEP and conservationist Stanley Johnson, and social justice campaigner Peter Tatchell, when they delivered a letter to the Prime Minister signed by 75 celebrities and politicians including Dame Judi Dench, June Brown MBE, Prunella Scales CBE, Timothy West CBE, Ann Widdecombe DSG, Brian Blessed, Dominic West, Eddie Izzard, Julian Clary, Michaela Strachan, Ben Goldsmith and Shadow Environment Secretary Maria Eagle MP.

ADI Chief Executive, Jan Creamer, “I am delighted that Sir Roger Moore and Imelda Staunton OBE are urging the Queen to support the promised ban on wild animals in circuses, which has support from the public and politicians alike. The Government has promised a ban and we want to see it happen. Further delays will result in continued animal suffering.”
 
The Government announced in March 2012 its intention to introduce legislation to prohibit the use of wild animals in circuses and last month ADI secured a commitment from the Prime Minister that a ban would be passed. However, following the publication of the Draft Wild Animals in Circuses Bill last April, little progress has been made to bring this legislation into law, despite an implementation date of December 2015 being proposed in the Bill.
 
The delay in bringing in the ban has already seen the return of big cats to the UK – a lion and tiger act from Ireland presented by Thomas Chipperfield, a relative of the notorious Mary Chipperfield, who was prosecuted for animal cruelty following an ADI exposé in the late 1990s. The animals are forced to perform with Peter Jolly’s Circus, one of only two circuses still touring with wild animals in England, and the only act of its kind in the country.