Animal rights activists are urging the authorities not to allow a circus to perform in Malta.

The Circus Animal Rights Coalition said it was highly dismayed that JS Productions persisted in making a profit from animal cruelty year after year, this time by bringing the Circo Fantasy.

"Animals used in circuses are unwilling participants in a show that jeopardises their health and psychological well-being," it said.

"Circuses force animals, often through painful and punitive methods, to perform tricks that are contradictory to their innate instincts and behaviour," the coalition added.

Keeping wild animals in captivity deprived them of much of what they valued in life. The animals had to live in an environment drastically different from their natural habitat and their spirits were broken from harsh training and from not being able to fulfil some of their most basic needs and instincts.