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Dems. and Reps. Press Case for Humane Treatment of Elephants

November 17, 2009 By Bob Neer

Kyle Cheney, State House News Service has the story:

When he first heard a plea to protect circus elephants around 2001, Sen. Robert Hedlund, a Weymouth Republican, said he thought it was a “crazy type of left-wing” effort.

But Hedlund, at a Monday press conference, said he found himself captivated by what he heard – that elephants are routinely and violently clobbered by their trainers, chained and confined to small, concrete pens and severed from their natural clans, which can cause psychological trauma.

Wielding a “bull hook” – a long, heavy instrument affixed with a sharp, curved metal hook – Hedlund took aim at the claims by circus officials that such tools are used merely as guides to tame elephants.

“Our mindset as a society has really evolved beyond this 19th-century mentality where we would strip animals from the wild… and force them to do acts that are not natural to them for the benefit of a viewing audience,” he said.

Hedlund is the sponsor of legislation (S 1870) that would prohibit the use of a bull hook on elephants in traveling circuses that pass through Massachusetts.

WBZ’s Jonathan Elias offered a fairly pitiful attempt at parody in his coverage of the event.

I used to like the elephant acts at the circus, but I don’t like them any more now that I have seen this:

Co-sponsors of the bill deserve a hearty round of applause, and underline the bi-partisan support for this measure.

The 13 co-sponsors of the bill include Sens. Scott Brown, R-Wrentham; Bruce Tarr, R-Gloucester; Mark Montigny, D-New Bedford; and Susan Tucker, D-Andover; and Reps. Lida Harkins, D-Needham; John Fresolo, D-Worcester; Anne Gobi, D-Spencer; and Bruce Ayers, D-Quincy.

Cruelty to animals injures all of us.

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Comments

  1. boxer14 says

    November 17, 2009 at 12:04 pm

    Check out this one…

    <

    p>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…

    <

    p>No wonder they don’t get “caught” abusing elephants by the FDA. They beat the bejeezus out of them during training to the point where they don’t need to touch them on the road.

    <

    p>I hope this guy is in jail.  

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