Environment, Food and Rural Affairs CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by Alexander Lacey and Martin Lacey Jnr
1. My name is Alexander Lacey and both my brother Martin Lacey and I are English. We care for, train and breed lions, white lions, tigers and white tigers. We are currently on our 9th generation of tigers and 13th generation of lions bred by ourselves and previously by our father which all began in our family zoo in Nottingham over 40 years ago.
2. My father began to train all the animals in his zoo as in his opinion the animals were bored and needed to be kept busy. The training proved to be a success as the animals looked forward to the morning or evening training sessions and the new and interesting interaction with their trainers. To cut a long story short my father became a well respected lion trainer and his lion act help to subsidies the zoo which eventually led us to join the circus business.
3. My brother and I were never expected to follow in either my father or mothers footsteps (my mother is also a tiger trainer) but in fact quite the opposite, we were sent to boarding school with the hope we may become bankers or accountants!
4. During our holidays we would return to the circus and couldn’t wait to be involved in the hands on involvement with all the animals. Going to boarding school in Lincolnshire was also an eye opener for us we began to look at the circus from an “outsiders” point of view and how people that were not from the business viewed the circus world. When we finished our education we both decided we would return to the circus and work with animals. I would have to admit though it was with a very different point of view, I promised myself that if I thought the training methods or handling of the animals was inappropriate or cruel that I would simply tell my parents this wasn’t for me and I would fall back on my boarding school education. I had no interest in being involved in the business if I felt the animal’s needs were not met.
5. Now as we sit here 20 years later we are proud to say that we are the leading lion and tiger trainers and also the best. We have won the top prizes in the most respected and famous circus festivals around the world and have received numerous rewards and accolades for our animal husbandry and care. Martin is the top act in Europe’s biggest circus Circus Krone and I work in America on the biggest circus in the world Ringling Bros. Barnum and Bailey. We have set new standards with regards to animal care and have been involved with various studies to prove that big cats do not get stressed during travel and that circus life and training can meet all the needs of big cats in a captive environment.
6. As I said at the start we are English and we would one day like to return to our homeland to work and do what we love and also give the opportunity to our children to follow in our footsteps if they so wish. If the ban is implemented it would mean we could not work in our country of birth which contravenes the European trade treaty. It would also abuse our rights on:
(a)
7. We hope that the ban is not implemented and that decisions are made on the proper numerous scientific studies that have proved that well run circuses can meet all the needs of the animals in their care.
8. We have long been pushing for legislation to license circuses which we now have. We think that the new licensing system which should be continuously visited to make sure it is a good working model is more than adequate to meet the standards that we would all expect for circus animals.
May 2013