Although Stardust Circus has packed up and left town, debate rages on over the use of animals for performance in circuses. 

A petition to Douglas Shire Council by local woman Peta Campbell to ban all future circuses using animals from performing within the shire has already collected 135 signatures. 

Ms Campbell says the use of animals in performance is an “archaic, unnecessary and harmful practice,” and called on the DSC to join 40 other Australian councils in banning animal circuses from performing in their shires.

“The life of a performing circus animal involves long periods of confinement, training, living in artificial social groups, continual transportation and forced performance of tricks for the duration of their performing lives. This results in a very stressful existence for the animals involved, all for the sake of a few hours entertainment,” Ms Campbell said. 

Ms Campbell further argued that allowing animal circuses to perform here damaged the region’s reputation. 

“Our region is continually sought out by tourists because of the high standard of ecologically minded tour operators that adhere to the principles of ecotourism. These principles call upon us to minimise our impact and build environmental awareness and respect. 

The realities of an animal circus are not in keeping with these principles,” she said.

Stardust Circus Ringmaster Adam St James said the circus had to comply by a very strict code of practice developed in conjunction with the RSPCA and had never once failed an inspection.

“All of our animals are trained using positive reinforcement, including the reward method,” he said. 

“There’s no use of whips or anything like that. 

“Many of our animals have been with our trainers from the moment they are born, they are often bottle-fed and hand-raised by them. Our lions are now 21 generations Australian-bred with the circus. “

Mr St James said that turnout at the circus’s shows proved that there was still plenty of public desire to see animal performances.

“In Port Douglas our house was at least three-quarters booked and we didn’t even have all our seating up - in Cairns now we are already recieving a phenomenal amount of bookings, so I think that there’s obviously a large number of people in Port Douglas that don’t agree with that petition. 

“Circuses with animals will never go out of fashion, but it changes - the days of seeing a lion revved up angry and growling are long gone, and we do a lot of education during the show on how we raise and care for the animals. 

“I’d hate to see a petition by a few people ruin the experience for everyone else.”

Ms Campbell's petition is available for viewing here while Stardust Circus's information page can be found here.

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