Martin Lacey defends the company's approach as follows: "The Circus takes veterinary advice from world-respected experts, not from campaign groups who too often seek to excite public sympathy in their quest for donations and support.
[2][3] In April 2007, the Advertising Standards Authority (United Kingdom) upheld a complaint against the company's claim that it was "Voted No.1 for Animal Care".
[4] In February 2009, The Independent reported that the company brought performing elephants to a UK circus for the first time in ten years.
[8][9] In August 2009, an undercover investigation secretly filmed a member of the circus staff hitting an elephant with a metal hook.
[10] On October 19, 2009, the company was referred to in allegations in a BBC documentary that visitor attraction Noah's Ark Zoo Farm secretly looked after animals on its behalf.