Final curtain for Britain’s last lion tamer: Bid to use big cats in circus is turned down
BRITAIN’S last lion tamer has been refused a licence in a move that is likely to spell the end for performances starring big cats.
Thomas Chipperfield has been told that he cannot use his three big cats in circus performances. The move follows the Government’s commitment to banning wild animals in circuses by 2020.
That pledge came after the Mail helped rescue Britain’s last circus elephant, Anne, who was abused at another organisation.
Mr Chipperfield, 28, who comes from a long line of animal tamers, has been told he cannot perform with the two lions and a tiger he keeps in a field in Staffordshire.
Only two circuses still perform in England with wild animals – Circus Mondao and Peter Jolly’s Circus – but they do not have big cats. Scotland prohibited wild animals in circuses last year and Wales is looking to do the same. A Government consultation found 94.5 per cent of the public favour a ban.
Welfare campaigners Animal Defenders International (ADI) said Mr Chipperfield has been off the road for more than two years after withdrawing his first licence application when a Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) inspection found his animals’ accommodapresident
‘A victory for common sense’
tion was not big enough. A 2015 tour of Wales, where regulations do not apply, sparked a public outcry.
ADI claimed the big cats were confined to cages on the back of a truck with restricted access to an exercise area. The group’s footage has allegedly shown the animals displaying abnormal behaviour, indicating they were not coping with their environment, but Mr Chipperfield denies wrongdoing.
The lion tamer, of Winchester, Hampshire, said no welfare concerns had been raised and he planned to appeal. He had already appealed the original decision from July, but his defence was dismissed.
Licences to ensure animal welfare were brought in while a ban was making its passage through Parliament. Defra said it remained ‘absolute’ in its commitment to ban wild animals in circuses.
Mr Chipperfield told the BBC his second appeal limited what he could say but he had ‘consistently acted in good faith with my team on the advice given by the circus licensing panel and their inspectors’, adding: ‘This advice was often conflicting.’ ADI Jan Creamer said the decision was ‘a victory for common sense’.
Anne the elephant, who was abused by staff at Bobby Roberts Super Circus, has been rehomed at Longleat Safari Park in a £1million enclosure that generous Daily Mail readers helped to fund.