Ban on wild circus animals advances

The Hawaii Board of Agriculture voted unanimously Tuesday to move forward on rules that would ban wild animals from being brought to Hawaii for use in circuses and fairs.

The matter touched off objections from advocates for the circus industry and accolades from animal rights supporters who recalled the tragic death of Tyke, the circus elephant who was mowed down in a hail of bullets on a Kakaako street in 1994.

The rules will now go through a public hearing process before going back to the Agriculture Board for approval and decision-making by Gov. David Ige.

Public hearings will likely be held on all of the islands in January, said Scott Enright, chairman of the Agriculture Board. He said he hoped the process would be completed by April.

The rules, as they are currently proposed, would ban almost two dozen animals — ranging from bears and lions to the lesser-known gavial, a long-nosed, fish-eating crocodile — that are deemed potentially dangerous to the public. Government-run zoos and the film and television industry are currently exempt from the ban.

Animal advocates Tuesday urged the Agriculture Board to go even further, however, and strike the exemption for the film and TV industries and allow only zoos accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums and sanctuaries accredited by the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries to import the animals.

Inga Gibson, Hawaii director of the Humane Society of the United States, told the board that the rules, as they are currently written, could create a loophole where businesses could claim to be a government zoo just because they receive some public funding.

Gibson and other animal welfare advocates also urged the board to include marine mammals, such as dolphins, in the ban.

Enright said after the hearing that a ban on marine mammals, as well as other changes, could be taken up as part of a separate rule-making process if public feedback indicates that there is the political will for it.

If the Agriculture Board makes any significant changes to the current rules after the public hearing process, the rules will have to go back out for another round of public hearings.

Recent screenings of the documentary “Tyke: Elephant Outlaw,” based on the circus elephant that killed its trainer and severely injured a groomer during a performance at the Neal Blaisdell Center before escaping onto the streets, appears to have galvanized support for the animal ban.

Matt Jisa told the board about how he was inside his Kakaako apartment when he witnessed Tyke hit by the first of a barrage of bullets from local police. Tyke was shot more than 80 times, according to news reports at the time.

“The Tyke incident proves that performing animal acts can go deathly wrong,” Jisa said. “Why continue to allow humans to be put in harm’s way when we don’t have to?”

Feld Entertainment, a worldwide producer of entertainment shows including Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus, presented testimony against the bill through its representative Chrystn Eads, an attorney at Honolulu’s Alston Hunt Floyd & Ing.

“While Feld has no immediate plans to come to Hawaii and bring its animal acts, Feld nonetheless is dismayed over the proposed complete ban on the import of large cats, all nonhuman primates and other animals,” Eads said in written testimony, which noted that the company had recently adopted a plan for discontinuing the use of Asian elephants. “The broad ban is particularly troubling as little data has been presented to support a complete prohibition, and there are more reasonable alternatives such as increased regulations that could be undertaken.”

State Film Commissioner Donne Dawson, concerned that the rules may eventually be amended to delete the film industry exemption, also testified at the meeting.

Film production “is a highly competitive arena,” Dawson said. “We are constantly looking for ways that Hawaii can be more film-friendly and encourage new businesses to come to our islands. If there were to be such a restriction, while I don’t think that we would be bringing in dangerous animals for performance on film sets, I don’t want the film industry to be excluded from that opportunity should it arise.”

While other cities and towns throughout the mainland have enacted restrictions on animal acts, Hawaii would become the first state to ban the use of wild animals in circuses and fairs, according to animal rights groups.