NO MORE ANIMAL CIRCUSES IN QUINTANA ROO
Home to top travel destinations like Cancun and the Riviera Maya, the Mexican state of Quintana Roo has achieved yet another hard-won victory in the fight to protect animal rights. For many years, there have been reports of circus animals living in unfit conditions like small cages and sometimes cruel training practices. Many states have begun to protect the animals by creating laws that ban animal circuses, and now that ideal has reached the shores of the Mexican Caribbean.
Source: Notimex
Quintana Roo is becoming the 13th entity in Mexico to approve a law banning animals in circuses. Other areas include Queretaro, Morelos, Colima, Chiapas, Chihuahua, Guerrero, Coahuila, Puebla, Mexico City, Zacatecas, Sonora and San Luis Potosi.
Members of the state's 14th Legislature approved the Law for Circuses without Animals in Quintana Roo, with 21 votes for, 1 vote against (by Representative Luis Roldan Carrillo) and no abstentions. The President of the Environment and Climate Change Commission, Remberto Estrada Barba, specified that the new law restricts any circus shows that include animals, whether they be public, private, permanent or temporary.
Estrada Barba (who is also a representative of Mexico's Green Party and the reform's main spokesperson), says that under the new law, it is also prohibited to use wildlife and/or domesticated animals for entertainment purposes (for profit and non-profit).
The legislator also said that, "Natural rules are violated in the circus, forcing animals to undergo stress and suffering every day of their lives. This all goes against their very nature and development, and it's a clear act of animal cruelty."
He added, "This initiative respects that circuses are the legal owners of the animals. The prohibitions do not at any time stipulate confiscation of the animals. Therefore, the owners can decide if they would like to keep the animals."
For more information, read the full article (in Spanish) here.