France has announced plans to ban the use of wild animals in travelling circuses as a well as outlawing keeping dolphins and orcas in marine parks and breeding mink for fur farms.
Barbara Pompili, the country's minister of ecological transition, announced in a news conference on Tuesday the country will be gradually stopping the use of bears, tigers, lions, elephants and other wild animals in travelling circuses.
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The minister added that while the French public will start to see the removal of animals from circuses "in the coming years", there will be a ban effective immediately on France's three marine bringing in or breeding dolphins and killer whales.
"It is time that our ancestral fascination with these wild beings no longer means they end up in captivity," she said.
In addition, France will be banning mink farming - the process of raising minks on a farm to use their fur - in the next five years.
"It is time to open a new era in our relationship with these (wild) animals," she said.
Pompili said that the process for stopping use of animals in circuses should start "as soon as possible" and said rehabilitation solutions will be found for the animals "on a case-by-case basis".
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"That transition will be spread over several years, because it will change the lives of many people," she said, adding the France government will be offering an 8 million euro package for circus and marine park workers to find other jobs.
"We are asking (circuses) to reinvent themselves," she said. "It will be a time when they will need support, and the state will be at their side."
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The French division of the animals rights group PETA hailed the decision as "an historic victory".
"Champagne bottles are being uncorked here. Thank you to all those who have helped bring this about."c
Featured Image Credit: UnsplashTopics: Life News, Life, Animals
