CAIRO — Late last month, a tiger attacked a circus worker in the northern Egyptian city of Tanta. The worker had to have his arm amputated. About two months earlier, in the central region of Fayoum, a lion fatally attacked a zookeeper.
Beyond the gruesome details of the attacks, the two incidents taken together have set off a national debate in Egypt about the suffering of animals and their mistreatment in their places of captivity inside circuses and zoos. Critics have highlighted the abusive methods for taming animals, and violent practices to force them to perform that run against their instinctive behavior. In some cases, animals have been shot at if they failed to comply.
During the rescue operation at the Tanta circus, while the tiger was mauling the arm of the worker, a colleague resorted to stabbing the tiger with an iron “training fork.” The injured worker, Mohamed El-Bastawisi, also blamed the tiger’s on-stage trainer for her failure to kill the tiger or shoot it using the emergency pistol in her possession.
According to accounts, the zoo incident in Fayoum, the lion — named Saad — had been locked inside a small iron cage. He was hungry and showed signs of exhaustion. When his keeper, Saeed Gaber, 47, opened the inner cage to bring him out in front of the public — the lion attacked him, grabbing his head with his fangs and claws. Security personnel tried to rescue him and shot the lion, killing it. The keeper was transferred to Fayoum General Hospital, but died from his injuries.
Soon after the incident, the Fayoum Zoo proudly posted on its Facebook page a video announcing the birth of a new cub named “Simba,” four months old, shown in a small iron cage no wider than one meter, with a blue collar around its neck.
According to the voice-over in the video, its cage is closed everyday at 5 p.m. and opened for him to leave the cage at exactly 8 a.m. the next day. He lives away from his parents, who are kept in their own separate cage.
Egyptian presenter Sayed Ghoneim riding a lion in a zoo on April 3, 2025. Source: Instagram
In the name of entertainment
Accompanied by the hashtag “#Together_to_boycott_the_circus” and the slogan “No to violence against animals,” a campaign was launched following the Tanta circus incident, with participation not only from animal rights activists, but also from artists and actors.
In a Facebook post, director Magdy El-Hawary called for saving animals from what he described as the “ignorance” of trainers: “The idea of the circus itself violates the natural law that God created — predators belong in the wild.”
Actress Asmaa Galal also posted on her Instagram account a photo of circus animals, including a monkey, an elephant and a lion, all bowing their heads in apparent sadness and fatigue. It seems the lines are unclear between normal behavior and harmful or abusive behavior toward circus animals, to the extent that a social media celebrity named Sayed Ghoneim, or the cheerful presenter, appeared in a video riding on the back of a lion at Mohamed El-Helou’s circus in the North Coast.
“Animal torture under the pretense of entertainment inside circuses is still happening in Egypt,” explains Hanan Dabbas, head of the Animal Protection Foundation “Although the use of animals in circus shows has ended in the developed world, we still treat it as fun and amusement.”
Hanan, through her non-profit organization, runs an animal shelter in the Abu Nomros area in Giza, outside of Cairo, that has documented numerous incidents of animals being tortured inside circuses and zoos. One of the worst situations is at Giza Zoo, where animals look emaciated and weak, leading us to deduce they are being starved and tortured to obey and perform for audiences.
Dina Zulfikar, another animal rights activist, agrees that the exploitation of animals in circus shows in Egypt must end. “What message do we want to convey to our children when they see animals in a circus that doesn’t even meet the basic standards of care?”
Worldcrunch ? Extra!
Know more • The treatment of circus and zoo animals varies widely, which frequently reflects broader legal frameworks and societal ideals. For instance, the Federal Nature Conservation Act and the Animal Welfare Act serve as the foundation for Germany’s stringent zoo animal welfare laws. These regulations mandate that zoos support the physical and emotional well-being of their animals by providing species-appropriate cages, routine veterinarian treatment, and enrichment activities.
Additional ethical and conservation-based criteria are enforced by the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA), which zoos like the Berlin Zoo are members of. In contrast, there are many wildlife parks in nations like Indonesia, yet rules for animal welfare are not always upheld. Some establishments, like the now-closed Surabaya Zoo, have come under fire from all over the world for their subpar living conditions, overcrowding, and lack of animal medical care.The way animals are treated in circuses has also garnered international attention, and as a result, many nations have changed their laws significantly. Citing cruelty and substandard living conditions, Bolivia, for instance, passed a pioneering law in 2009 that outlawed the use of domestic and wild animals in circuses — as reported by The Guardian.
This action was among the first of its sort in history and has sparked legislation of a similar nature in other places. The United States, on the other hand, still permits animals in circuses, however many performances using wild animals have been phased out due to public outcry and dwindling attendance. After years of criticism, the iconic circus in the United States, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, discontinued their animal acts in 2017. Although implementation and enforcement differ greatly, these instances show a global shift toward increased concern for animal rights. — Hagar Farouk (read more about the Worldcrunch method here).
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Dina Zulfikar points out that over the past three years, numerous cases of animal torture in circuses have been exposed. One widely circulated photo shows a lion in actress Faten El-Helou’s circus, showing signs of fatigue while standing on its feet leaning against a metal bar.
Dina explains to Al-Manassa that animals’ needs are not just food and water. There must be weekly medical consultations and suitable accommodations: “Certainly, appropriate living quarters are not iron cages or hard floors that harm their bodies.”
Dina affirms that the circus was attractive to audiences in the past, but with progress, “keeping animals imprisoned inside cages is now one of the greatest forms of cruelty and crimes against them.”
In recent years, many European countries have banned the use of wild animals in circus performances, including Austria, Belgium and Finland. In December 2014, the Netherlands decided to ban circuses from using wild animals in their acts.
Sharon Dijksma, the Dutch Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs, considered animal welfare more important than using them in entertainment or clinging to outdated traditions. She added that tight cages, in addition to the constant travel required by circuses, constitute a kind of torture for shackled animals.
Feed chimpanzees at the Fayoum Zoo. Source: Facebook
Torture behind the scenes
Mona Khalil, head of the Egyptian Society for Mercy to Animals, says that a circus animal, in order to perform just one trick or stunt in front of an audience, endures days of torture, beatings and cruelty. This denies the image that trainers spread of friendliness, love and good relationship with the animals.
The animals are typically raised from a young age in narrow iron cages and deprived of a natural life. When training begins, trainers use sticks — including electric ones — and whips, “to teach them that if they do not perform the required tricks, they will be subjected to degrading punishment. And if they resist, they will face a reaction that causes them severe pain,” explains Khalil.
She affirms that the obedience of circus animals does not come from love for their trainer, but rather are actions done to avoid torture, beatings, or food deprivation. “The circus is a prison, animals are constantly tortured: we must think about their lives inside these cages before applauding the trainer, who in reality is their executioner.”
Parliamentary proposal
Member of Parliament Ayat Al-Haddad submitted a proposal to ban the use of predatory animals in circus acts in Egypt. She stresses the need for each circus to be prohibited from importing or possessing any predatory animals for entertainment performances, in addition to imposing financial fines and strict penalties on any party that violates the decision, including administrative closure.
Meanwhile, Zaki Abbas, a member of the Local Administration Committee in the House of Representatives, calls for a comprehensive investigation into cases of animal rights violations in circuses and public gardens. He says that the violations that appear and are captured by cameras are just a small snapshot of a wider scene of abuse against animals.
Returning to animal rights and wildlife activist Dina Zulfikar, she proposes banning the use of animals in circuses altogether — whether wild or not — changing the performance methods before audiences, establishing sanctuaries to place endangered animals and give them a chance to reproduce.
