“Zooshiza” has reached circuses: the State Duma wants to ban performances with animals

The movement, rightly called by the people “radical zooschiza,” has reached the offices of the State Duma. Deputies of the New People faction have developed a bill banning the use of animals in circuses. On November 14, Duma members presented their brainchild at the “zero readings.”

Zoodefenders predictably accepted the initiative with a bang. What will happen to the famous circus dynasties, where the unique profession of a trainer is passed down from father to son for generations? Where are four-legged artists doomed to while away their lives, who with such a law will automatically become “unemployed”?

The co-author of the bill, the leader of the New People faction, Alexey Nechaev, said that a circus with animals is cruelty, and nothing more.

— Tigers didn’t sign up for such a profession! – he stated categorically and cited data from sociological surveys.

Unfortunately, no one has interviewed the Tigers yet. But, according to the deputy, VTsIOM asked Russian citizens aged 18 to 37 years about their attitude towards circuses with animals. Approximately half of the respondents are allegedly against it. And also, according to the authors of the bill, the demonstration of animals in the circus allegedly causes psychological trauma to children.

“The fate of circuses with animals has already been decided, it’s a matter of time,” animal activist Dinara Ageeva added fuel to the fire. She, too, armed herself with numbers and stated that according to sanitary standards, large cats must have an outdoor enclosure of 80 square meters.

“In circuses, animals are kept 23 hours a day in a cage barely larger than their body,” said the social activist.

True, in their rush to save the circus predators, the deputies seem to have forgotten about the circus trainers.

“The profession of a trainer is unique,” ​​said Igor Bazarov, deputy artistic director for the veterinary department of the Grandfather Durov’s Corner theater. “It’s not in demand anywhere else.” By banning animals from the circus, you leave several thousand performing artists and trainers without work. This means that these people need to be retrained and given new jobs. This is the concern of the state.

The issue of transferring an animal from a circus to a zoo also always raises a lot of questions, Bazarov noted.

“Our theater spent four years deciding where to place an adult 30-year-old hippopotamus. With great difficulty, we managed to place this hippopotamus in a zoo in Kazakhstan. This is a very big problem,” said Bazarov.

The “New People” bill also caused outright bewilderment at the Ministry of Natural Resources.

Director of the Department of State Policy and Regulation in the Sphere of Protected Areas Development Irina Makanova said that even the explanatory note to the amendments is “crude.” And that’s putting it mildly. The note itself looks like a full-fledged circus act – an illusion or juggling with facts.

For example, deputies refer to data from prosecutorial checks. It would seem that numbers are a stubborn thing: according to the Prosecutor General’s Office, in February 2022, in 62 regions, the activities of more than 500 shelters, zoos and circuses were checked, 116 cases of illegal use of animals and 48 cases of cruelty to them were suppressed.

Irina Makanova stated that these statistics are completely different.

“References to prosecutorial checks relate to non-compliance with sanitary standards and do not contain justification for non-compliance with the law on the responsible treatment of animals,” Makanova revealed the secret of her legislative focus.

Officials were particularly indignant at the deputies’ thesis that animals allegedly come to circuses straight from the wild. Naturally, by force. That is, not a circus, but a beastly Guantanamo.

“The circus contains animals that are in the fifth, sixth, or even seventh generation, born in captivity,” explained the representative of the Ministry of Natural Resources.

Makanova also pointed out that traveling circuses without a license should be checked first. But to eliminate circus art as a class simply because training is its foundation is wrong.

Animal rights activist Alexander Starostin has rendered his verdict: wild animals have no place in the entertainment industry. But cats are a different matter, the animal rights activist continued. A cat is a domestic animal.

– Okay, but will a circus with cows suit you? “A cow is also a domestic animal,” Elena Sharoykina, chairman of the commission on ecology and environment of the RF OP, joined in the reflection of her colleague.

By the way, cats also suffer from “radical zooschisis”. The artistic director of the Kuklachev Cat Theater, Dmitry Kuklachev, said that the theater troupe was accused of complete savagery: they allegedly mock four-legged artists, allegedly their cats live no longer than two years, since they are shocked at the Kuklachev Theater.

— We had a story on tour in Germany. When we first arrived, a commission came to us. First of all, they began to look at the paws of animals. When we asked why, the veterinarians answered: we want to see that the paws are not burned by electric shock,” said Dmitry Kuklachev.

The Zapashny brothers could not come to the “zero readings”. They are now participating in the International Cultural Forum in St. Petersburg. However, the famous trainers sent a letter to the Duma members, in which they expressed their position on the bill. True, for some reason the participants in the “zero readings” did not dare to read the letter. But MK has it at its disposal.

“We are extremely concerned, like the entire circus community, by the persistent desire of people not associated with the circus industry to again and again raise this issue of amendments to the current legislation, which can not only destroy cultural traditions, but also discredit the circus art itself, which has a centuries-old history. We consider such a ban as part of the information and ideological war against circus activities in Russia,” Zapashny emphasized in the letter.