Council proposes ban on animals in circuses

A motion has been put forward to Galway City Council to ban circuses from using wild animals when visiting the city.

The move was made following a number of attacks by circus animals in the county.

Recently, an elephant gored a circus worker in Salthill, and a number of people were bitten by monkeys.

Local Councillor Niall O’Brolchain said circuses didn’t need to use wild animals to boost ticket sales.

Mr O'Brolchain said: "We had for example a Chinese circus that came to Salthill recently that was by far the most popular circus we've had in recent times, and it didn't have any wild animals at all.

"It had people dressed up as dragons and so on and it was extremely popular.

"There's absolutely no need to have wild animals in circuses."