The Public Works & Transportation Committee of the Dane County Board of Supervisors (Madison, Wisconsin) is considering a county-wide ban on circuses with elephants.  Local activists have brought this measure before the Committee to protest the Zor Shrine Circus engagement in Madison this February.  The article below mentions a Committee meeting in January, but the Supervisors are still reviewing the measure and taking public input; the proposed ban has not been placed on the Committee agenda yet.

County proposal would ban elephant performances

KAREN RIVEDAL | Wisconsin State Journal

Posted: Tuesday, December 13, 2011 6:00 am

Eight-thousand-pound elephants balancing on tiny balls or circling trunk-to-tail under the big top could become a thing of the past in Madison.

A proposal to ban performing elephants at the Alliant Energy Center — on the grounds the practice is cruel and archaic — is set for a Dane County Board committee vote Tuesday night.

If approved by the full board in January, the measure could mean the end of the long-running Zor Shrine Circus, which has included elephant performances every February at the Dane County Coliseum.

County Board Chairman Scott McDonell noted the county has a multi-year contract with the Zor Shriners.

Alliant Energy Center Executive Director Bill DiCarlo said Monday he didn't know how the county would get out of those obligations, which run through 2020, if the measure were approved. Circus operators and the Zor Shriners didn't return repeated calls for comment.

The measure, proposed by Dist. 11 Sup. Al Matano has 15 co-sponsors including McDonell — three votes short of the 19 needed for approval.

"Elephants don't belong in trucks, they don't belong in circuses, and we decided as a county (in 2000) not to keep them at our zoo, because we weren't able to house them humanely," Matano said. "So having them at our expo center makes no sense. It's not possible to have elephants in a traveling show and treat them carefully enough."

Matano said he wouldn't want to breach any contracts and suggested negotiation is possible.

Matano's measure comes amid a growing national movement against the use of performing elephants and other animals, especially in traveling shows. Concerns have been raised over harsh training practices — including documented abuse of handlers using whips and stun guns — cramped or unsanitary cages, excessive stress, unnatural tricks that can be unhealthy to perform, hours of confinement during transport and threats to public safety.

A bipartisan proposal to ban exotic animals including elephants from traveling circuses and other road shows was introduced in Congress Nov. 2 by U.S. Rep. James Moran, D-Va. In addition, the company that runs Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus paid a record $270,000 fine in November to settle federal allegations of abusive treatment of its elephants from 2007-11.

"Ringling has the reputation for having the best care in the industry, but even in the best-case scenario, you have to treat elephants pretty roughly and cruelly to get them to perform," said Rick Bogle, co-executive director of Madison-based Alliance for Animals.

Missouri-based George Carden Circus, the company hired by the Zor Shriners for its Madison shows, was cited in March for using lame elephants without proper documentation and lax supervision during elephant rides for the public, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture inspection records.

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