A circus ringmaster has hit back at animal rights protesters who claim his performing camels are in poor health.

The protesters are attempting to dissuade people from visiting the Great British Circus, in Wigginton Road, York, by holding up banners at its entrance bearing allegations of animal cruelty.

Diane Sanderson, a law student, is campaigning for it to be made illegal for circuses to keep animals.

City of York Council has already banned circuses with animals from performing on council-owned land in response to public concern about animal welfare.

Diane said: "The animals experience mental suffering from their travelling conditions and constantly being taken from site to site and the animals are not out grazing but left on a short chain.

"If you look back five years there was far less public awareness, but nowadays the majority of people don't want to see animals in a circus."

Circus-goer Lydia Garner, 36, from Tadcaster, took her two children and a friend's two children to the circus and claimed the camels were in poor condition. She said: "Their humps were hanging down to the side and their fur had bald patches. I'm not an animal expert, but to me that's not right."

But ringmaster Martin Lacey said the five camels, a horse and a donkey, which give rides to children during the interval, were certified in good health by a vet in June this year.

He said: "I've won awards for caring for animals. I'm a zoology advisor for Yorkshire Television and the Ministry of Agriculture among others.

"Not all camels have sticking up humps and the bald patches are because the camels are now growing their winter coat so the summer one is vanishing and the winter one coming through. Camels also love to eat hawthorn and while they're sticking their heads in the bush it's quite feasible that hair could have been pulled out.

"I've been caring for animals for 40 years and I'm suddenly being told by a bunch of students that they don't look well."