The Washington state House of Representatives on Wednesday, April 9, passed a bill that would ban the use of large wild animals for traveling performances such as circuses.
The bill was passed by the Senate Feb. 7 and now awaits the governor's signature.
Under Engrossed Senate Bill 5065, elephants, bears, non-human primates and large felines could no longer be used for traveling live-audience performances in the state of Washington.
While ownership of these animals was already outlawed in 2007 under the Dangerous Wild Animals Act, this law would expand that restriction by barring out-of-state parties from bringing those animals into Washington as part of a traveling performance.
The legislation was sponsored by a host of state Democrats, including Sen. Marko Liias, D-Edmonds. It does not apply to permanent installations that have a license for animal ownership from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
During public hearings for the bill in the House Community Safety Committee and the House Committee on Appropriations, animal rights supporters from groups such as Humane World for Animals, the Animal Legal Defense Fund and the Animal Rights Initiative testified in favor of the bill. The groups, along with many concerned citizens, cited years worth of animal rights violations, cramped travel enclosures and high profile animal escapes as reasons for their broad support of the bill.
An elephant named Viola escaped from a circus just last year in Montana when she was spooked by a truck backfiring. She ran through local traffic before being cornered behind a store and returned to the circus. It was the third time she had escaped.
Testimony also cited other high profile escapes by elephants since the 1990s, including an escaped rampaging elephant named Tyke that killed her trainer and injured bystanders before being shot and killed by local police in Honolulu, Hawaii.
“No Washingtonian should be expected to risk subjecting themselves or their children to potential violence hysteria, trauma or worse,” Wendy Linton, a concerned citizen, said. “Especially while enjoying a setting where parents are placing full trust in the authorities in charge to keep them and their children safe.”
Educational programs like Flight Club Foundation, an organization that hosts large parrot expos as well as “parrot play dates” where parrot owners can bring their animals to socialize with others of their kind, rose in opposition to the bill, worried that ethical and educational programs will be restricted by cities and counties that under the bill would be able to pass more restrictive rules on exotic animals.
However, cities and counties already have the power to create regulations around wild animals and their conditions under the 2007 Dangerous Wild Animals Act. The City of Wenatchee banned exotic animal possession and their use by circuses last year after the Jordan World Circus visited the town.
Kris Cameron, a Wenatchee resident, spoke during a public hearing on the bill advocating for the bill and calling for circuses to transition to animal-free shows.
“The acts that got the biggest audience response were the things like the motorcycles in the ball going around and around, the death defying acts,” Cameron said. “The animal acts were kind of embarrassing and sad.”
A spokesperson from Animal Rights Initiative, Amanda Fox, included in testimony and a recent news release that five Washington cities other than Wenatchee have already passed laws banning exotic animal possession and circuses. Those cities are Spokane, Darrington, Snohomish, Port Townsend and Redmond.
