2024 – Elephants, Big Cats, Primates, Giraffes and Bears in Traveling Shows

An Act Regulating the Use of Elephants, Big Cats, Primates, Giraffes and Bears in Traveling Exhibits and Shows – Passed in 2024!

H. 4915 passed the House on July 25, 2024 (session video) (formerly H. 3245). Passed the Senate on July 31, 2024. Signed by Governor Healey on August 8, 2024. Read the Governor’s press release. Effective January 1, 2025. Read the law.

Sponsored by Senators Bruce Tarr and Adam Gomez and Representatives Carole Fiola and Bradley Jones, this law prohibits the use of elephants, big cats, primates, bears, and giraffes in traveling shows in Massachusetts. The use of these animals in circuses, for rides, at fairs, and in other traveling shows subjects intelligent and social animals to abusive treatment and a life on the road, deprived of exercise and the ability to express even the most basic, natural behaviors. When chained and confined in small spaces and handled with pain-inflicting devices, such as electric prods and bullhooks, these animals can become dysfunctional, unhealthy, depressed, and aggressive.

Wild animals also pose a risk to public health and safety. Since 1990, the U.S. has seen nearly 160 dangerous incidents involving big cats, bears, elephants and primates used in traveling shows, tragically resulting in 10 adult deaths, 136 adult injuries and 73 injuries to children. Additionally, elephants can carry tuberculosis (TB), a zoonotic disease that can spread through the air, which puts anyone near an infected animal at risk of contracting the illness. TB carried by elephants once used in the circus was linked by the CDC to an outbreak affecting 13 people in Tennessee, only one of whom had had direct contact with infected animals. Similarly, according to the CDC, in 2013, eight employees at the Oregon Zoo became infected after contact with an infected elephant.

While traveling circuses are regulated by the federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA), which is enforced by the USDA, no agency monitors training sessions where the most violent abuses occur. Further, because the AWA establishes only minimal standards and fails to incorporate modern husbandry practices, a facility can be in compliance with the federal law, yet the animals are still subjected to inhumane conditions. Due to inadequate resources, the weak standards of the AWA are also poorly enforced.

In September 2019, an elephant named Beulah, who was being exhibited at The Big E Fair in West Springfield, collapsed and died not long after. Roughly five months after her death, in February of 2020, the USDA reported that the cause of death was septicemia from a painful uterine infection called pyometra. Beulah was born in the wild in 1967, captured as a baby, and sold to the Commerford Zoo when she was around 6 years old. She spent most of her 54 years in captivity. Commerford has been cited by the USDA over 50 times for failing to adhere to the Animal Welfare Act.

More than 40 countries, eleven U.S. states (California, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Virginia), and more than 200 localities in 37 U.S. states have passed legislation addressing the abuse of wild or exotic animals in circuses. Prior to the Massachusetts bill being signed into law, 15 municipalities in the state had already passed local laws restricting the use of these animals, and more: Amherst, Braintree, Brookline, Cambridge, Mendon, Northampton, Quincy, Pittsfield, Plymouth, Provincetown, Revere, Somerville, Topsfield, Weymouth, and Wilmington. Read our Advocate Spotlight on Martha Sanders’s experience passing the Topsfield ban.

In the Headlines

• New Massachusetts law bars circuses from using elephants, lions, giraffes and other animals. AP News. August 12, 2024.
• Massachusetts House votes to ban using big cats, elephants in circuses. Boston Globe via MSN. July 25, 2024.
• Animal advocates rally to support legislation to ban exotic animals from traveling shows. The Boston Globe. October 22, 2019.
• MSPCA calls for ban on exotic animal traveling shows following death of elephant Beulah at The Big E. MassLive. September 19, 2019.