Circuses that feature wild animals are to be banned in parts of north Dublin following a decision by Fingal County Council this week.
The councillors voted to introduce bylaws or other measures to ensure circuses that use wild animals are prohibited from performing in any part of the local authority area.
It is the first time a council in the State has taken such a measure. The councillors made the decision "in light of the well-documented evidence of suffering endured by the animals involved and the serious animal welfare issues raised".
The issue will be brought to the council's community strategic policy committee in the next few weeks to determine the details of the measures.
Hundreds of e-mails were sent to Fingal councillors from animal-rights activists in advance of the vote.
The Alliance for Animal Rights (Afar) and Circuswatch Ireland yesterday congratulated the council for making a "compassionate decision", which would help animals "confined in the beastwagons of travelling circuses".
"We are looking on this as the beginning of the end for circuses with animals in Ireland," said a spokeswoman for Afar.
"This is the first council to get this motion passed unanimously, despite the issue being raised in other areas in the past."
Socialist Workers Party councillor Clare Daly, who tabled the motion, said she would have been happier if they had taken a decision to ban all animals instead of just wild animals, but was pleased to have made progress on the issue. "I believe that it is an important step forward and I hope it can be used to assist debate in other local authorities," she said.
Ms Daly said she hoped there would not be a row over the definition of a wild animal and hoped the council would adopt the definition used by the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
When the bylaws are drafted, they will come before the council for ratification. "We are aiming to have the measures in place before the next circus season," Ms Daly said.
