SB2953

Report Title:

Animal Cruelty; Circus Elephants Prohib

 

Description:

Prohibits the use or exhibition of elephants in traveling shows and circuses.

THE SENATE	S.B. NO.	2953
TWENTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2002
STATE OF HAWAII

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

relating to animal cruelty.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. According to the Humane Society of the United States, wild animals used in circuses and other traveling acts, are routinely subjected to months on the road confined in small, barren cages, are provided with limited and inconsistent veterinary care, and live in filthy and dilapidated enclosures. These animals are often chained in one position for the majority of the day and have no chance to move, let alone express their full range of natural behaviors, or to socialize with other members of their species. Their routine care is often entrusted to seasonal or temporary circus employees with little or no experience in their care.

Despite claims to the contrary, trainers often use excessive and abusive training methods to establish and maintain the control necessary to make animals perform tricks. Although positive reinforcement is part of a trainer's repertoire, it is not the only tool, and is not enough to guarantee control of a four-ton elephant in the ring.

Regardless of training, wild animals used in circuses behave instinctively and unpredictably. On August 20, 1994, at a Circus International matinee in Hawaii, an African elephant named Tyke crushed her trainer to death, injured another circus worker and twelve spectators, broke out of the circus to run loose in the streets for thirty minutes, and was killed by being shot more than eighty times by police. Such incidents bring to light not only the suffering and stress endured by performing elephants, but also the danger they can pose to circus workers and the public.

The federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA) sets minimal standards for the handling, care, treatment, and transport of wild animals in circuses. AWA standards are inadequately and inconsistently enforced by the United States Department of Agriculture. Therefore, circuses and traveling wild animal acts can keep wild animals in shocking conditions and still be in compliance with the AWA. Furthermore, violators of the federal law are frequently given several chances to correct violations and have rarely faced federal prosecution or lost possession of animals. Even when local cruelty laws apply to circus animals, the nature of the legal system and the fact that circuses are constantly on the move work against successful prosecution of cruelty charges. Some communities have addressed the problem of performing wild animals in circuses by prohibiting those circuses that use wild animals from operating within their jurisdiction.

The purpose of this Act is to prohibit the exhibition or use of elephants in traveling shows or circuses.

SECTION 2. Section 711-1109, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsection (1) to read as follows:

"(1) A person commits the offense of cruelty to animals if the person intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly:

(a) Overdrives, overloads, tortures, torments, cruelly beats or starves any animal, or causes or procures the overdriving, overloading, torture, torment, cruel beating or starving of any animal, or deprives a pet animal of necessary sustenance or causes such deprivation;

(b) Mutilates, poisons, or kills without need any animal other than insects, vermin, or other pests;

(c) Keeps, uses, or in any way is connected with or interested in the management of, or receives money for the admission of any person to, any place kept or used for the purpose of fighting or baiting any bull, bear, dog, cock, or other animal, and every person who encourages, aids, or assists therein, or who permits or suffers any place to be so kept or used;

(d) Carries or causes to be carried, in or upon any vehicle or other conveyance, any animal in a cruel or inhumane manner; [or]

(e) Assists another in the commission of any act of cruelty to any animal[.]; or

(f) Exhibits or uses elephants in traveling shows or circuses."

SECTION 3. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:	_____________________________