From the State House News - Kudos to Senator Hedlund
"COMMITTEE POLLING ON TOUGHER ELEPHANT BILL: After generating passion and fervor last fall, a bill governing the care of elephants in Massachusetts is primed for release from the Committee on Tourism, Arts and Cultural Development. Members of the committee have until noon today to report on the bill. Originally meant to ban certain training methods – the use of sharp, curved bull hooks, and chaining elephants for prolonged periods – the committee has toughened the language to ban elephants from traveling circuses in the commonwealth altogether. At an October hearing, Ringling Bros. executives expressed outrage at the bill, insisting that banning the use of bull hooks would prevent traveling circuses from ever coming to the state. Bull hooks, they said, were never used to harm elephants, which they said share close bonds with their trainers. But several former circus employees and animal rights activists contrasted the circus executives’ accounts, describing bleeding, shrieking elephants, beaten viciously by trainers. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Robert Hedlund (R-Weymouth), would not ban elephants kept by institutions accredited by the American Zoo and Aquarium Association."
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