THE LACEY BLOG. Circus Director, Martin Lacey, with the Circus Blog . . . . updated  June 12

Well done My Weekly! Imagine my surprise and delight when I was shown a copy of My Weekly magazine featuring a centre page spread of my partner, Helyne Edmonds. This is the first article I have seen for at least fifteen years not to peddle the animal rights and RSPCA anti circus line. Instead they publish an interesting and factual account of how Helyne became a tiger trainer. Well done My Weekly! National press please note, you can write an interesting article without animal rights references. Since the Defra report the public know we care for our animals and it's good to know My Weekly appreciates this as well.
Gene pool: We have decided that we should be attempting to breed elephants with our unique gene pool of two Indian and one African cows. I was therefore thrilled to receive a letter from the ECA telling me that the Animal Working Group have agreed to work on this project this year and are now collecting data on all European circus elephants as quickly as possible. I have also heard that Colchester Zoo have had some success with African elephants but the zoo world to date have been most unhelpful. I just wish zoos would realise how well kept circus elephants are, exercised and stimulated though training and walks around their circus site, unlike their zoo cousins, who are usually bored, overweight and in some cases cannot be handled by their keepers. Martin Lacey Jnr is joint Chairman of the European Circus Association’s Animal Working Group with Sonny Frankello. Both Alex Lacey and me are members of the group. I will keep our supporters posted on progress via this blog.
Defra Report: After a two year study by Defra into wild animals in circus, six eminent scientists concluded that circuses were capable of meeting the welfare needs of animals in their care.
READ THE FULL GOVERNMENT REPORT HERE: http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/welfare/pdf/circus-report.pdf

Our magnificent ELEPHANTS are the only group of jumbos performing in any circus in the UK. Don't miss them!

Two Asian and one African elephant join the Great British Circus marking the first time for over 10 years that a European elephant act has been brought to a circus in the UK. In the picture (left) Sonja is walking over her trainer Lars. In our other picture, Sonja, Delhi and Vana Mana look very content as they slurp their daily ration of 200 litres of water. Despite their size these three lovely ladies are very gentle and intelligent creatures.

UNIQUE! This is TIARA, the only WHITE TIGER travelling with any British Circus. She has lovely blue eyes and a pink nose. She is being trained for a new act and has fun playing with our two other circus bred young tigers, Meena & Dehra. See our group of five adult Tigers performing in the ring - the only Big Cage act in any circus in the UK!
OUR LATEST DVD, 'Spotlight on the Great British Circus' is available now. Also available, 'A Day at the Circus'. Click the image (right) for details of all our other Circus DVDs. DVDs cost £11.99 each + P&P. Email us at:             ringmaster@greatbritishcircus.co.uk