I 'M sure your readers will remember the story of Anne the elephant who, earlier this year, was shown to be suffering abuse at the hands of her groom at a UK circus.

The public were horrified, and hundreds took to the street to protest outside the circus. Thousands of people were motivated to write to their MPs and urge them to introduce a ban on the use of wild animals in circuses.

It seemed that the Government was listening, and in May Defra announced that they were "minded to pursue a ban".

However, the Government quickly did a U-turn and announced that it would be introducing a regulatory system instead.

Not only would this system fail to protect the welfare of the animals currently in circuses, it would put other animals at risk of being introduced in the future.

The Captive Animals Protection Society and other animal welfare organisations were certain that a regulatory system was not enough to protect wild animals. Thankfully, the public agreed.

Over the past few weeks, MPs have received tens of thousands of letters from people calling for a ban.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everybody who wrote, emailed or spoke to their MP about this issue.

Recently, the House of Commons voted unanimously in support of a ban being introduced by July next year. Without our supporters, and the thousands of people who wrote to their MPs, this victory would not have been possible.

Thank you to everybody who got involved in this important campaign.

We will now continue to work with the coalition of animal protection charities to ensure that the Government honours the vote and introduces a ban on the use of wild animals in circuses to take effect next summer.

In the mean time, please continue to vote with your feet and boycott circuses that feature wild animals.

Fiona Peacock,Campaigns Officer,

The Captive Animals' Protection Society

THE media seem baffled as to why the Government were so determined not to concede a ban on wild animals in circuses.

Have they really not noticed that David Cameron's Conservatives (with some honourable exceptions) are still very much the "nasty party" when it comes to animal abuse?

Though wisely keeping quiet about it now, the Prime Minister is still passionate about restoring the "right" of his pals to harry and kill wild mammals for fun, by pledging to repeal the Hunting Act at some point.

Not only is the blood sports lobby an inner-core Tory constituency, but the Party is in serious hock to it for mountainous donations and electoral aid.

If No 10 is really willing to "bribe" and "threaten" MPs over the relatively minor issue of a few dozen circus animals, to what lengths will it go (is it already going) to further the perverse but totemic desire to restore the barbarity of unbridled hunting with hounds?

Alan Kirby

Protect Our Wild Animals [POWA]

ONE of the problems with some politicians is that they play to the public gallery, rather than base their legislation on evidence.

Just such an example was displayed in Kerry McCarthy's interview (Evening Post July 11.

Ms McCarthy attacks the Government for not banning wild animals in circuses, yet her party was in power for 13 years and failed to do so.

The issue of bovine TB in badgers is a real and serious problem, with no simple answers.

Ignoring it, as Ms McCarthy seems to imply, will do nothing for farmers, the cattle that are killed, the enormous cost to the public purse in compensation and the badgers themselves that suffer a miserable death through this disease.

The passing of the Hunting Act consumed vast amounts of Parliamentary time and money. It was bulldozed through via the Parliament Act and has done absolutely nothing for welfare apart from making it worse for the wild animals concerned.

Now, with a promise for a free vote to correct this flawed legislation, Ms McCarthy criticises the government again, as if somehow everything is fine. It is not.

In a country that is almost totally man-managed, we have a duty to control wild animals and do so in ways that are as humane as possible. The use of selective, non-wounding scent hounds does just that. However, there should be a law that provides a "safety net" under all activities to prevent unnecessary suffering.

So the message to MPs should be: examine the evidence, understand the issues, forget political correctness and legislate properly.

James Barrington

Animal Welfare Consultant