Call to ban elephant cruelty probe circus from Blackburn
Saturday 2nd April 2011
By Sam Chadderton » Reporter
COUNCIL bosses are being urged to ban a circus at the centre of an elephant abuse storm from coming to Blackburn this summer. Bobby Roberts Super Circus has hit the headlines after secret footage was released by animal rights campaigners showing 57-year-old elephant Anne being kicked and struck with a metal pitchfork. The circus visits Blackburn every year - and is due at Witton Park again in the summer. Council bosses said they would review whether to allow the show to go ahead should anyone from the attraction be found guilty of animal cruelty charges. But there have been calls to stop the circus coming to town whatever the outcome of an investigation by Northamptonshire police. Yesterday it was confirmed that Anne was being given to Longleat Safari Park in Wiltshire to start a new life. This week Moira Roberts from the circus apologised for the mistreatment of Anne in a barn in Polebrook, Northamptonshire. The circus said the incidents ‘appeared to be isolated and at times when Bobby Roberts was away for short periods’. Bosses blamed a groom employed to care for the elephant — and said he had left the circus in the early hours of Saturday morning after the footage emerged. Police are investigating the claims. But Neil Martin, the general manager at Bleakholt animal sanctuary in Edenfield, said action needed to be taken to stop the show coming to Blackburn. read more at:
http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/8949896.Call_to_ban_elephant_cruelty_probe_circus_from_Blackburn/?ref=rss
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