California Senate Bill 716 has been referred to the Senate Appropriations Committee (the bill passed the Public Safety Committee on May 4, with amendments).  **UPDATE: The Appropriations Committee moved the bill forward to the full Senate on May 18.**

If passed, this legislation would ban the use of the elephant guide (also called a bull hook/ankus) in the State of California beginning in 2018. It would apply not only to circuses but zoos and all other elephant exhibitors and facilities in California.  As you know, this is a widely accepted and humane elephant management tool that is absolutely necessary for people to safely work or interact with elephants in a public setting, whether it is in a circus, at a fair or in a zoo.  Further, proper use of the elephant guide is a crucial component for elephant management in breeding and conservation programs and for providing comprehensive veterinary care.  In short, elephants are better off when they can be cared for in the hands-on manner that this tool allows.

All of us who are opposed to such bans need your help.  Please contact the seven members of the Senate Appropriations Committee (see below) with a short e-mail, phone call, or letter, and encourage your friends and family to do the same – especially those who live in California or who have been to circus performances or elephant exhibits in the state.  Sample talking points for your correspondence are listed at the end of this alert, but please use your own words and your own experiences as a circus animal supporter to express your opposition to CA SB 716.  Please note that the bill’s sponsor, Senator Ricardo Lara, is the Chair of the Appropriations Committee, so it is important that all correspondence is respectful.

Committee Contact Information:

Committee email addresses (cut and paste into the “To” field of your email):

senator.lara@senate.ca.gov; senator.bates.senate.ca.gov; senator.beall@senate.ca.gov; senator.hill@senate.ca.gov; senator.leyva@senate.ca.gov; senator.mendoza@senate.ca.gov; senator.nielsen@senate.ca.gov

Senate Standing Committee on Appropriations

State Capitol Building

Room 2206

Sacramento, CA  95814

(916) 651-4101

Committee website: http://sapro.senate.ca.gov/  

Committee members:

Senator Ricardo Lara (Chair)

Senator Patricia Bates (Vice Chair)

Senator Jim Beall

Senator Jerry Hill

Senator Connie Leyva

Senator Tony Mendoza

Senator Jim Nielsen

Sample Talking Points

The following are suggestions for your correspondence in California, but please use your own words, and you do not need to include every bullet point.  Please keep all correspondence respectful.

·         Politely tell the Appropriations Committee members that you are OPPOSED to any measure that would prevent elephant handlers and breeders in California from using this widely accepted and humane elephant management tool.

·         True animal experts know that a safe and secure environment is the only acceptable and successful method of training any animal, including elephants.  The elephant guide, sometimes called a bull hook or ankus, has been used by elephant handlers for thousands of years.  Elephant handlers in zoos, nature preserves and circuses throughout the world use the guide as an extension of the trainer’s arm along with a voice command.

·         The most successful Asian elephant breeding and conservation programs are free contact management, and that means using guides (bull hooks).  By banning this tool you would limit the ability of most California zoos to ever breed elephants successfully.

·         The North American elephant population is not sustainable and this is particularly true for Asian elephants.  Each year fewer zoos have elephants and even fewer have successful breeding programs, due in part from the movement away from free contact management of elephants.

·         The elephant guide is also approved by veterinary and zoological organizations because it enhances the ability of veterinarians and keepers to care for their elephants.

·         If any animal is being mistreated in any environment, then the right answer is to enforce existing laws and regulations to punish bad actors, as opposed to punishing an entire industry and the public who enjoy elephant exhibitions.

Thank you!