Circuses will no longer have to have permits to keep wild animals, if parliament backs a new proposal by junior farm minister Henk Bleker, Trouw reports on Wednesday.

It is not clear from the report why the minister wants to scrap permits for circuses. Zoos will continue to need licences.
According to groups opposed to the use of circus animals, Bleker last year twice ‘legalised’ animals which were being kept by circuses without the official paperwork.
‘It is incredible that zoos will have to obey the rules but circuses be given free rein,’ Leonie Vestering of umbrella group ‘Wilde Dieren de Tent Uit’ (wild animals out of the tent) told the paper.