Great day for France as Barbara Pompili, the Minister of Ecology, announced the end of wild animals in travelling circus, delphinariums and mink breeding centers for fur. The mink breeding center will be banned in five years. No dates have been told for circus and dolphinariums but it will be made together with the owners. Breeding and arrivals of new dolphins and orcas will be banned as soon as possible and the dolphinariums will be closed when good solutions could have been found for the future of the animals. Quite the same for circus.
The minks are american ones and are bred just for fur. They are put to sleep in this way. So I suppose the company will continue business until it will be prohibited and if some minks are still in the center they will be sent outside to other breeders. We don't have precisions about this at the moment but articles just speak about wild animals not domestic ones.
It's probably good that mink breeding centers are going - but I'm not sure you can call a day where dolphinariums and traveling circuses are banned a "great day". It's far from it.
American Mink have been banned in Europe as a whole already as part of the newer invasive species regulations. ~Thylo
Honestly, I think they will hopefully all be euthanized. I can't say I really give a damn what happens to them either (as long as they are not released into the wild) as it is Mustela lutreola that I feel most worried about.
I don't understand why people don't. They're just like zoos, there are good ones and bad ones. The animals don't really care as long as they are well cared for (which they usually are).
@birdsandbats Are you killing me ? How can we compare few square meters without any peace of nature with average (I don't speak about the best) enclosures in zoo ? And, of course, all circus have vets to watch over the animals all year round
Strangely did I in my entire life cross a "good circus". They are at best on the level of roadside zoos.
These animals aren't in a "few square meters" for too long, only a few weeks at most. The rest of the year they have lots of space. And it's not as if they are sitting in that space for long periods of time, either, the shows are a great form on enrichment.
I agree with @Antoine on this. Even just how many circuses treat their animals. Many use brutal methods of training them. I don't think it's right to use animals just to entertain people. I think they belong in a place where they can live their life similar to how they would in the wild (like at a zoo).
This is great news and I'm surprised that France even has 80 circuses with wild animals. The article on the link below mentions that the nation has 3 dolphinariums that will need to close down...what are their names? (On a side note, I think that Spain has by far the most dolphinariums in Europe and it will be interesting to see if the French decision has any impact on Spain) https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2020-09-29/france-to-ban-use-of-wild-animals-in-circuses
Yes I'm aware of that, but that doesn't justify the circuses that do that kind of thing. Also like I said, the idea of circuses to me isn't a great one.
Besides entertainment, dolphinariums serve other purposes, too. They can be used to rehab stranded cetaceans and sea turtles.
I don't have any opinions about dolphinariums, mainly because I haven't looked into researching them that much, however, I believe as long as there is enough space for the dolphins, it's probably okay.
