With the exception of last summer, Zippo’s Circus has come to Sidcup every year since 1994. It’s a great favourite with audiences, and is welcomed and supported by the local public. The Circus will perform at Sidcup Place from May 6th to 11th.
One of the most popular features of the circus is its animal performers. They include horses, ponies, and budgies — extremely domestic and extremely uncontroversial participants.
Like all traditional circuses, Zippo’s advertises by placing posters in the windows of local shops, where shop-owners give their permission. An animal rights group is proudly boasting on its website that its activists have misled shopkeepers in Sidcup into removing these posters. They reveal their method; they state that shops were ‘visited by “a guy from the circus” who informed them that sadly the shows had to be postponed so the posters were now out of date and new ones would be delivered soon’.
While the activists are obviously lying to the shopkeepers, there’s no attempt at pretence on their website about what they’re up to. The use of the highlighted phrase ‘a guy from the circus’ is a clear admission of a very crude subterfuge. Whatever the activists’ agenda may be, it doesn’t include being truthful.
Zippo’s Circus follows a strict ethical code in caring for its animals. They are kept, trained, and transported in line with a code developed in cooperation with the respected charity World Horse Welfare (formerly the International League for the Protection of Horses). The circus’s state-of-the-art portable stabling was designed and built after positive discussions with the Born Free organisation. The circus is regularly inspected by specialist veterinarians; some of their comments can be read on Zippo’s website at http://www.zipposcircus.co.uk/ecode.html
Zippo’s Circus informs local people in Sidcup and in Bexley that it has not been and will not be cancelled or postponed; and that the claims made by the activist fanatics are clearly and certifiably untrue.
Tickets for the circus can be bought via www.zippos.co.uk , by ringing 0871 210 2100, or at the ticket office on site from 10am to 8pm each day from Wednesday 5th May.
I can provide images and further information.
Kind regards.
Chris
