Bergen County takes step toward banning circuses

Bergen County freeholders moved for a ban on exotic or wild animal shows on county property with a unanimous vote to introduce an ordinance Wednesday night.

“It was a long hard fight but we made it happen,” Freeholder Joan Voss told a group of animal rights activists who pushed each of the officials over the past two years to support the ban.

The ban emerged first from local protests in recent years by the League of Humane Voters at area circus events, protesting what they call inhumane treatment of traveling circus animals, said Julie O’Connor, a regional director for the league’s state chapter.

“We’re so happy that Bergen County may set a precedent to say no to traveling acts that may inflict harm on animals,” said O’Connor, who lives in Tenafly. “Let’s hope that tonight’s vote paves the way for a more humane future in New Jersey and let’s have it begin here.”

Freeholder John Felice admitted he was initially reluctant to support the ordinance when league members first met with him. But his views changed.

“As time went on I began to realize this was very common-sense oriented,” Felice told the crowd. “This makes a statement about the use of exotic animals in our county parks.”

More than 50 governing bodies in 22 states have passed some form of restriction or ban on the use of exotic animals, according to the website of Born Free USA, a nonprofit animal protection organization.

The ban comes amid national attention on animals in entertainment. The company that runs Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus held its final elephant performance in May, citing economic concerns after numerous towns, including Los Angeles, had banned certain training equipment related to elephant work.

Ringling Bros. will continue other animal performances.

SeaWorld officials announced in March that they would no longer breed Orcas in captivity and the Orca shows at their San Diego facility would end in 2017 and Orca shows in both San Antonio and Orlando would end in 2019.

This came three years after a documentary film titled “Blackfish” exposed alleged dangers of keeping whales captive.

The ordinance lays out 12 categories of animals, everything from tigers to snakes to kangaroos and elephants. It does not include dogs, domesticated horses, donkeys or mules.

The ban isn’t just about circuses. It also includes carnivals, trade shows and parades where the animals have “no permanent residence or are removed from their permanent residence for a period of more than 18 hours at a time for the purpose of performance or exhibition.”

But the ordinance does carve out exceptions for wildlife sanctuaries, rescue centers, zoos and outreach programs for education and conservation purposes.

O’Connor said she and fellow members first protested a Cole Brothers circus held at Overpeck County Park two years ago and soon afterward brought their concerns to the freeholders, seeking their support.

A short time later the group gave a detailed presentation highlighting abuse allegations against various circus companies and showing information on such reports throughout the industry.

But the spokesman for a company that has taken over Cole Brothers routes, venues and equipment said he was disappointed in the ordinance, which he learned of when reached by The Record.

“There’s a lot of misinformation about exotic animal care,” said Bill Carter, spokesman for King Cole Circus and Big Top Productions, two companies that run circus routes throughout the Southeast and Northeast regions of the United States from their headquarters in Florida.

Carter said that the industry had been governed by federal law that details specific requirements for care, transportation, housing and feeding of the animals and allows random, unannounced inspections onsite by U.S. Department of Agriculture officials.

“Bans like this are unfortunate because most people really lack specific knowledge of what these ordinances govern,” Carter said. “Circuses and exotic animal exhibition and care in general are very tightly controlled by the federal government.”

The ban applies only to county-owned properties.

Both Carter and the general manager for another circus company said that the county property ban would not affect their future events since most of the sites they use are on either private property or municipal property.

The Oklahoma-based Kelly Miller Circus had multiple events in 18 New Jersey municipalities in June, according to their website. Two local events were held in Little Ferry and West Milford and in previous years in Washington Township.

“It’s disheartening that a lot of the animal rights activists are pushing their agenda to eliminate animals from our lives,” said Tavana Brown, general manager for Kelly Miller Circus.

Brown said the No. 1 attraction that drew audiences was the animals.

“I just feel like if you’re doing things in the proper way, you should be judged on your own merit not lumped in with others,” Brown said.

The county ordinance is only one step of many, O’Connor said. There are efforts to pass a federal law and a state law. But while those efforts continue, she said that local opponents of the animal performances were pushing for lower levels of government to pass the ordinances.

“If we can target local municipalities it’s going to really show our state legislators how this is not something we should be doing in 2016,” O’Connor said.

The ordinance will require a second reading for adoption, which will be scheduled after 10 business days have passed.

Email: south@northjersey.com