Emmy-award winning actress and proud Illinoisan Jane Lynch has urged Gov. Bruce Rauner to sign Senate Bill 1342, which will ban the use of elephants in traveling animal acts.
“Elephants are majestic, gentle giants with complex needs,” Lynch said. “Those used in circuses and traveling shows are deprived of everything that is natural to them such as the ability to roam and form tight matriarchal family groups. Instead, they are kept in chains, transported across the country in crowded, poorly ventilated trucks and trailers, with every expression of natural behavior met with intimidation and, as ample evidence has shown, physical abuse.”
The Humane Society of the United States supports the legislation and joins Lynch in urging Gov. Rauner to sign it.
“An increasingly enlightened public is rejecting the mistreatment of elephants used in circuses and other traveling shows, as evidenced by the recent closing of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus,” said Marc Ayers, Illinois state director for The HSUS. “This bill would ensure that no elephant in Illinois would ever again suffer abuses common in the circus industry, such as violent training and prolonged chaining.”
