I WOULD suggest that if C Thompson (May 4 letters) has viewed several circuses and not seen a problem he saw what they wanted him to see.

It is very easy to make things look good on the surface, as they did when selling slaves at market, oiling their skin to disguise the greyness of ill health, rubbing ash into sores as camouflage.

It took undercover work to expose the abuse of Anne the elephant who spent 50 years seeming happy in the ring.

Odd that the RSPCA should be happy with circus conditions while concurrently campaigning to ban wild animals in them.

C Thompson and I agree on one thing – that animals who until recently would have been classed as wild or exotic are now seen as domestic and may not be covered by the new ban.

I must thank Sue Dudley for informing us of animal abuse other than circuses.

Since there can hardly be an animal left on this planet that is not harassed by humans in one way or another we campaign for all abused animals including puppy farms and intensive livestock units.

The circus need not be destroyed – as I wrote previously they have plenty of exciting human acts to offer and shouldn’t need to use animals.

People can choose to spend their lives travelling, animals can’t.

ROBERTA BALFOUR Malvern