Global Action Network has campaigned for the past three years to stop the exploitation and abuse of animals in entertainment. In 2000, we successfully lobbied two Quebec municipalities (Ville St. Laurent and the Town of Mount Royal) to ban exotic animal acts in entertainment. A third Quebec municipality agreed to enact non-animal welfare legislation to stop circuses from performing there.

Every year, Global Action Network organizes peaceful protests against the Super Cirque de Montreal (held each Christmas at the Molson Center), and the Shrine Circuses held across Canada each summer.

Currently, GAN is campaigning to achieve bans of animal acts in entertainment in the City of Montreal and several surrounding municipalities. We are also working to have the Canadian Food Inspection Agency ban the import of all performing elephants with a history of Tuberculosis.

We've compiled a list of things you can do to get involved in the campaign to stop the exploitation and abuse of animals in entertainment

You can also make a donation to help fund our ongoing campaign to ban animal acts in entertainment

In contrast to the glitter associated with circuses, performing animals' lives are traumatic and short-lived. Because animals do not naturally ride bicycles, stand on their heads, or jump through rings of fire, whips, electric prods, and other tools are often used to force them to perform. Add to this the stress of extensive travel, confinement in dirty, undersized cages, and inadequate food and water supplies, and you have a day in the life of a circus animal.

Because of these miserable conditions and travel for up to 50 weeks of the year circus animals often rebel and rampage; in the past decade alone, over 220 people have been injured or killed as a result.

It should be noted that many circus animals are endangered in the wild. In a time when we are just beginning to educate our children and society about endangered species, using wild animals in circuses sends a dangerous message - that wild animals have no intrinsic value - that they are there to be used for something as frivolous as "entertainment.

Please take a moment to read our factsheets and learn more about the circus industry and what you can do to help the many abused animals it exploits.

Global Action Network is collecting petition signatures in support of our Montreal bylaw initiative. Download the petition here.