Over a thousand people gathered in Kyiv's Taras Shevchenko park for a rally to demand a legal ban on the use of animals in circuses, the Interfax-Ukraine news agency has reported.
Speaking from the steps of Taras Shevchenko Monument, the founder of the animal rights initiative UAnimals, Oleksandr Todorchuk, said that the activists do not mind circuses as such but against the exploitation of animals in them.
ONUKA's vocalist Nata Zhyzhchenko and Panivalkova's Iryna Luzina performed at the rally.
Many participants in the rally wore animal costumes or held hand-made banners saying "Circus without cruelty", "Animals are not clowns", "You laugh, animals cry", "It's not that funny backstage", and "They cannot fight for their rights. You can".
Currently, the laws banning or restricting the use of animals in circus performances are in place in Austria, Great Britain, Sweden, Australia, Canada, Finland, many US states and in several other countries.
MPs together with animal rights activists registered two bills (No 5283 and No 5229), which ban performances involving animals in stationary and travelling circuses in Ukraine.