Animal Defenders International (ADI) has released shocking footage from behind the scenes at the Great British Circus, showing violence and confinement of circus elephants.

The results of an undercover investigation by ADI shows the animals being hit in the face, being kept chained and barely able to move for up to 11 hours a day, and displaying disturbed, abnormal behaviour.

The circus, which has been touring the UK since February 2009, features two Asian and one African elephant. Despite the Government’s 2006 promise to ban “certain non-domesticated animals” from travelling circuses, Defra (Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) allowed the elephants, Sonja, Vana Mana and Delhi, to be brought into the country by the Great British Circus to tour this year, signalling a major backward step for circus animal protection.
 

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