OTLEY’S MP has hailed the progress of a campaign to end the use of wild animals in circuses.

Alex Sobel (Lab, Leeds North West) has been lobbying hard for the Government to tackle the issue

Speaking in September, 2017, he called on landowners to stop providing places for animal circuses to operate on and described life on the road as ‘wholly unsuitable for creatures who need space to roam and pastures to graze’.

Those comments were made during a time of protest over one circus’s use of animals while putting on shows at Otley Old Road, Horsforth.

A new bill to prevent the use of wild animals - defined as any animal not commonly domesticated in the UK - was announced by the Government in May and received its third reading in Parliament this week.

Speaking at the debate, Mr Sobel said: “I would like some reassurance from the Minister about a circus that operates in my constituency, Circus Mondao, which has a zebra and two camels. I have been campaigning for it to cease the use of these,and I ask that the Bill cover that so that I can happily go to Circus Mondao in the knowledge that, because of this Act, it is not using wild animals.”

Undersecretary of State for Food and Animal Welfare, David Rutley MP (Con, Macclesfield) confirmed that that would be the case, adding: “Those practices will no longer be able to be taken forward.”