{"id":1075,"date":"2013-03-03T10:18:19","date_gmt":"2013-03-03T00:18:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?p=1075"},"modified":"2013-04-07T22:54:44","modified_gmt":"2013-04-07T12:54:44","slug":"gold-coast-lifts-circus-animal-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?p=1075","title":{"rendered":"Gold Coast lifts circus animal ban"},"content":{"rendered":"\"\"<\/a>Exotic circus animals will be allowed back in the Gold Coast City LGA after a controversial ban was overturned in February.\r\n\r\nFour years ago the Gold Coast City Council voted to ban circuses featuring exotic animals from performing on council-owned land, but the ban did not extend to private property.\r\n\r\nThe debate was heated, and councillors were evenly split on the issue at seven votes each.\r\n\r\nMayor Tom Tate used his casting vote and lifted the ban.\r\n\r\nPrior to the council meeting, about 100 animal rights activists demonstrated outside Gold Coast City Council Chambers.\r\n\r\nA group of former circus owners were also present.\r\n\r\nRSPCA Qld spokesperson, Michael Beatty, said he urges the council to stand firm on its original decision and not allow circuses with exotic animals to perform on council land.\r\n\r\nThough he said the RSPCA accepts the fact that the animals are born and captivity and may not be able to be returned to the wild, he believes the spectacle creates a negative image.\r\n\r\n\u201cMost circus employees genuinely love the animals and would do anything in their power to protect them from any premeditate or incidental cruelty,\u201d he said.\r\n\r\n\u201cHowever, the public, children in particular, learn nothing beneficial or positive about these animals by seeing them perform tricks that are unnatural and bear no similarity to their behaviour in the wild.\r\n\r\n\u201cThese animals should be moved to open plan zoos where they are able to express normal behaviours.\u201d\r\n\r\nBeatty added that the animals are caged, forced to live in cramped and unsuitable housing, and hauled around in \u201cbeast wagons\u201d.\r\n\r\nHe said wild animals often show their distress through unnatural and abnormal behaviour such as swaying, bobbing and pacing.\r\n\r\n\u201cI am disappointed that Dawn Crichlow, a councillor who has always stood up for the \u2018underdog\u2019, has thrown her weight behind an effort to overturn the ban,\u201d Beatty said.\r\n\r\n\u201cIn this day and age, exotic animals have no place in a travelling circus. The Lion King is paraded as the Lion Jester, and that\u2019s sad.\u201d\r\n\r\nCr Crichlow did not respond to <\/span><\/span>The Veterinarian <\/em><\/span><\/span>by press time.<\/span><\/span>\r\n\r\nSAM WORRAD<\/span><\/span><\/strong>\r\n\r\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Exotic circus animals will be allowed back in the Gold Coast City LGA after a controversial ban was overturned in February. Four years ago the Gold Coast City Council voted to ban circuses featuring exotic animals from performing on council-owned land, but the ban did not extend to private property. The debate was heated, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[977,976,974,973,979,978,975,129,280],"class_list":["post-1075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-banning","tag-bans","tag-circus","tag-circus-animals","tag-council","tag-entertainment","tag-gold-coast","tag-queensland","tag-sam-worrad"],"rise-blocks_total_comments":0,"rise-blocks_categories":[{"term_id":5,"name":"News","slug":"news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":5,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":403,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":5,"category_count":403,"category_description":"","cat_name":"News","category_nicename":"news","category_parent":0}],"rise-blocks_excerpt":"Exotic circus animals will be allowed back in the Gold Coast City LGA after a controversial ban was overturned in February. Four years ago the Gold Coast City Council voted to ban circuses featuring exotic animals from performing on council-owned land, but the ban did not extend to private property. The debate was heated, and councillors were evenly split on..","blog_post_layout_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":"","full":""},"categories_names":{"5":{"name":"News","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?cat=5"}},"tags_names":{"977":{"name":"banning","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=banning"},"976":{"name":"bans","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=bans"},"974":{"name":"circus","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=circus"},"973":{"name":"circus animals","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=circus-animals"},"979":{"name":"council","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=council"},"978":{"name":"entertainment","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=entertainment"},"975":{"name":"Gold Coast","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=gold-coast"},"129":{"name":"Queensland","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=queensland"},"280":{"name":"Sam Worrad","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=sam-worrad"}},"comments_number":"0","wpmagazine_modules_lite_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":"","cvmm-medium":"","cvmm-medium-plus":"","cvmm-portrait":"","cvmm-medium-square":"","cvmm-large":"","cvmm-small":"","full":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1075"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1124,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1075\/revisions\/1124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}