Thomas Chipperfield has said that he is preparing to mount a second appealThomas Chipperfield, Britain’s last lion tamer, has been refused a licence to use three big cats in a travelling circus. His appeal against a decision made by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) last July was dismissed in court in January, according to a freedom of information request by the BBC, published yesterday. Mr Chipperfield, 28, from Winchester, Hampshire, told the BBC that he was pursuing a second appeal and had “consistently acted in good faith with my team on the advice given by the circus licensing panel and their inspectors”. A spokesman for Defra said that it remained “absolute” in its commitment to ban the use of wild animals in circuses. The government has pledged to ban travelling circuses from using…

Source: The Times April 12, 2018 23:15 UTC