An honest testimonial of animals in circuses! - P John Darmanin, Cospicua, THE TIMES.

With reference to Shane Johnson's letter in The Times (January 1), I too used to believe that there was nothing wrong with animals performing in circuses. But one late evening many years ago, I happened to stop by the tents of a circus in Gzira and tried to sneak a glimpse of the animals. I had not walked far before I saw something that I had not expected. Under one of the tents there were some elephants, chained by the foot to a peg in the ground and while some attendant emptied a sack-full of cabbages for them to eat, the nearest elephant tried to go for him in vociferous anger. The attendant then grabbed a hay fork threatening a blow at the animal's trunk. I returned to the car very perplexed. What I had seen was to change my view about circus animals.

I would believe that no coercion is used when, inside the cage with a pack of lions or tigers, I see the tamer without any sticks or whips. That will be the day, because no lion or tiger will fear any bare handed human and for that reason these kings of the jungle will have to be respected. It must be the fear of the stick and the whip, gained from unpleasant past experience that makes them obey a physically inferior animal.

While I believe that some domestic animals like dogs, cats, horses etc. can be trained without aggression to perform mild and cute circus acts, I will never believe it can be the same with the wild cats. Confinement of the big cats in small cages, and chaining of elephants are forms of suffering that are often overlooked. Born to be free, these animals suffer from delusion, frustration, fear, boredom, exclusion and everything that makes them what they really are - kings of the jungle. In the circus their nature is subdued to a caricature. There is no escaping the fact that caging wild cats and conditioning them to perform tricks for selfish human pleasure is just another cruelty.

How helplessly naïve it is to rally theological misconceptions to support an assertion for human rights over animals. Lions are obligate carnivores and have no other option but to hunt when desperately hungry; it is not a question of rights. Man is the world's greatest predator remorselessly killing billions of animals annually, not to survive but to satisfy his tastes, to feast, in celebration and in sport. If Mr Johnson's God gives him licence to kill animals for food then his is not my God. My God tolerates me eating meat if circumstances demand it, as He offered me kinder and healthier nutritional options. To refrain from eating meat is to acknowledge God as the only Lord of Creation.

Our place at the head of creation imposes on us obligations not rights. Our obligations are to care for all creation in His likeness not to exploit it. Asserting the right to kill innocent creatures, a person would reflect an image of a God the ruthless hunter-predator. There is more nobleness in humanity when it embraces all creatures within its circle of compassion because like us they are infused with the breath of life. Like us they have one special desire - a desire to simply live.