On November 8, 2017, the Italian Parliament raised its hand and said enough. 🐘 With a single vote, Italy became the 41st country in the world to ban the use of animals in circuses — and not just wild ones: the law includes all of them, from lions to horses. Behind that decision were years of campaigns, undercover investigations, and data that made it impossible to look the other way.
What researchers at Wageningen University found was devastating: 71% of animals in circuses had documented medical problems. Lions spent 98% of their time confined indoors. Elephants were chained, on average, 17 hours a day. With those numbers on the table, Italy had about 100 active circuses and nearly 2,000 animals living in those conditions. 🦁
The president of Animal Defenders International, Jan Creamer, traveled to Rome to lobby the Senate, and organizations like LAV Italy spent years building the legal path. Culture Minister Dario Franceschini was the one who pushed the legislation across the finish line. In 2022, a second law ratified the ban, and since then no circus has been allowed to acquire new animals or breed its own. The victory was a long time coming, but it arrived. ✊