I'm delighted to speak in this debate today. I was really pleased last month to see this statement from the Cabinet Secretary for Energy, Planning and Rural Affairs when she said that she would be exploring ways of bringing a ban forward. Fellow Members know that this is a subject that I feel really strongly about, and I've raised it in Plenary on numerous occasions over the years. I believe that an outright ban on wild animals in circuses is the only way that Wales can show the rest of the world that we too, like Scotland and the Republic of Ireland, do not welcome what is an outdated and cruel form of so-called entertainment. It's a view, as has been said already, shared by three quarters of the population. Well, one thing is certain: it isn't entertainment for the animals. If you read the reports about the cruel conditions—and they've been outlined here today—that, very often, these animals are subjected to, there is no entertainment whatsoever in that for them. Lots of people have mentioned that the RSPCA have contacted all of us, it seems, about using section 12 of the Animal Welfare Act 2006 to bring that forward. Simon Thomas has also outlined that that is somewhat limiting, but I would like to see legislation brought in as quickly as possible but also as comprehensively as possible.

I am also concerned about animals like reindeer being used as an attraction for passers-by in city centres and outside church nativity displays, being used to draw people, particularly children, towards their exhibits. I think this is also cruel. I don't think that reindeer are meant to stand for hours on end on concrete yards, and I don't want us to legislate in one area to the detriment of another area is what I'm really saying. I think we really need to look at everything that we can do and do it as comprehensively and as quickly as we can. To coin a phrase, or to misuse another phrase, if we keep to reindeer, reindeer are not just for Christmas; they're supposed to actually have a life.