From January 2025, contact zoos and traveling circuses will be banned in Kazakhstan. This was announced by the Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources Erlan Nysanbayev at a government briefing.
"The legislation on responsible treatment of animals provides for a norm that prohibits the exhibition of wild animals, the creation of traveling zoos, oceanariums, and so on. This norm comes into force on January 1, 2025. Therefore, from next year, the activities of traveling circuses and zoos will cease ," said the head of the Ministry of Ecology.
Nysanbaev added that regular circuses will continue to operate in the country for now, but the ban on traveling ones will be the first step towards this norm.
"So far, we are only talking about traveling circuses and zoos. It is too early to talk about a complete ban on the use of animals in circus performances in Kazakhstan. There are no plans for such a ban at the moment," the minister replied.
By the way, in 2021, the President of Kazakhstan signed the law “On Responsible Treatment of Animals”. It took into account proposals from animal rights activists to introduce a ban on the creation and operation of mobile zoos, petting zoos, mobile oceanariums, dolphinariums and mobile animal exhibitions. In March 2023, a hotline on animal protection issues was launched in Kazakhstan.
Let us recall that earlier the Uzbek authorities banned the use of wild animals in circuses and other similar performances.
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