On this day in vegan history · May 28, 2018
Scotland Bans Wild Animals From the Circus
No lion had toured with a Scottish circus in years, but on 28 May 2018 the law finally caught up and made it official: the country would never let one perform again.
The facts
- In force
- 28 May 2018
- Final vote
- 112 for, 0 against (Scottish Parliament, Stage 3, 20 December 2017)
- Royal Assent
- 24 January 2018
- England follows
- Wild Animals in Circuses Act 2019 took effect 20 January 2020
The Wild Animals in Travelling Circuses (Scotland) Act 2018 came into force on 28 May 2018, making it an offence for a circus operator to use a wild animal for performance, display, or exhibition anywhere in Scotland. Cabinet Secretary Roseanna Cunningham introduced the bill in May 2017, and the Scottish Parliament passed it at Stage 3 by 112 votes to zero on 20 December 2017, with Royal Assent following on 24 January 2018. By the time it took effect there were no travelling circuses left based in Scotland, so the practical target was less a live industry than a principle: that wild animals do not belong in a ring, however long they had been kept there. Scotland became the first part of the United Kingdom to put that principle into law, and England followed with its own ban in January 2020.
In their words
The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.
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The bill we have introduced today bans the use of wild animals in travelling circuses, which is widely considered to be morally unacceptable in the present day.
Roseanna Cunningham, Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform, in a Scottish Government news release announcing the bill, 11 May 2017
Source: gov.scot -
The Bill makes it an offence for circus operators to use wild animals in a travelling circus whilst in Scotland.
Scottish Parliament, official bill summary
Source: Scottish Parliament
Why it still matters
It was the first outright UK ban on wild animals in circuses, decided on ethical grounds rather than welfare technicalities, and it gave England's Parliament a working template to follow eighteen months later.
Sources
This history is still being written.
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