New Massachusetts law bars circuses from using elephants, lions, giraffes and other animals

BOSTON (AP) — The use of elephants, lions, giraffes and other animals in traveling acts like circuses is now banned in Massachusetts after Gov. Maura Healey signed into law a bill prohibiting the practice.

Supporters of the legislation, which Healey signed Friday, said the goal is to help prevent the mistreatment of animals.

Beginning Jan. 1, traveling acts, like circuses, carnivals and fairs, will be prohibited from using certain animals, including lions, tigers, bears, elephants, giraffes, and primates, for entertainment, under the law.

Exceptions include animals that live at a zoo and the use of animals in filming movies. Non-exotic animals like horses, chickens, pigs, and rabbits can continue to be exhibited.

“For years, circuses have harmed the welfare of animals for the sake of entertainment, allowing animals to suffer in poor living conditions and stressful environments,” Healey, a Democrat, said in a statement.

It’s up to the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife to adopt the new regulations. The state Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs and state and local law enforcement officers are authorized to enforce the prohibition, which carries civil penalties of $500 to $10,000 per animal.

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With the new law, Massachusetts becomes the 11th state to pass restrictions on the use of wild animals in traveling exhibits and shows, according to the Humane Society of the United States.

The use of live animal shows has waned in recent years.

Shows put on by the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey no longer include elephants and other live animals. The Topsfield Fair stopped displaying elephants after a municipal ban in 2019. King Richard’s Faire, the largest Renaissance festival in New England, ended its exotic cat show in 2020.

Preyel Patel, Massachusetts state director for the Humane Society, said the new law protects animals from enduring abusive training methods — including the use of bullhooks, whips and electric prods — and being forced into prolonged confinement and being hauled from city to city.

“This historic legislation marks the end of an era where tigers, elephants and other wild animals are forced to perform under deplorable conditions including being whipped and forced into small cages to travel from show to show across the commonwealth,” Patel said.

Advocates also pointed to the 2019 death of an elephant Beulah, owned by a Connecticut zoo. The elephant had been at the center of a lawsuit by the Nonhuman Rights Project which wanted Beulah and two other elephants moved to a natural habitat sanctuary.

The suit also argued the elephants had “personhood” rights that entitled them to the same liberty rights as humans. In 2019, a three-judge panel of the Connecticut Appellate Court upheld a lower court and rejected an appeal by the advocacy group, determining that the group did not have legal standing to file legal actions on behalf of the elephants,

Zoo owner Tim Commerford had defended how the zoo cared for the elephants and denied claims of mistreatment, saying the elephants were like family.