City Council OKs animal protection measure

Action infuriates Shrine Circus

Voting 6-3, Pittsburgh City Council passed a hotly contested bill Tuesday that would ban using any painful instrument — or any instrument that could be painful — on wild and exotic animals.

Animal-rights activists cheered the decision, saying the plan should prevent outdated and inhumane practices that other communities have outlawed already. But detractors including the Syria Shrine, which puts on the annual Shrine Circus at PPG Paints Arena, condemned the move in a packed council meeting. Shriners said the legislation is too broad and would jeopardize their 68-year-old fundraising circus through needless regulations.

“You hate kids,” Shriner Anthony Gennaccaro, 60, of Washington, Pa., hollered at council after the vote. He called the effort a “joke” and a “travesty.”

It wasn’t immediately clear whether Mayor Bill Peduto will sign the bill into law. Spokeswoman Katie O’Malley said he was reviewing the measure, which also drew concern from the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium. Zoo CEO Barbara

Baker said her organization was studying reworded language that council incorporated Tuesday morning.

Council President Bruce Kraus last week introduced the legislation, an overhauled version of a proposal that he brought up in 2016. The earlier plan would have stopped public performances of wild and exotic animals, such as lions, tigers, elephants, monkeys and camels.

In an interview last week, Mr. Kraus acknowledged that he didn’t have enough council votes to pass that rule. But he forecast — accurately — that narrowing the bill to focus on animal treatment would capture majority support.

Council members Darlene Harris, Deborah Gross and Theresa KailSmith dissented in Tuesday’s vote. Any lingering legislation not decided this month will expire with the end of council’s two-year legislative session Dec. 31.

“This is not an intent, as might have been [argued], to harm circuses in any way, not an intent to harm our zoo in any way,” Mr. Kraus said. “We believe that there are alternative methods that are well known around the nation that many circuses and zoos are using to train their animals in much more compassionate ways.”

The final bill would outlaw the use of bullhooks, electric prods, shocking devices, hacksaws, elephant hooks, baseball bats, ax handles, pitchforks, whips, sticks and any instrument “capable of inflicting pain, intimidating or threatening pain for the purpose of training or controlling” wild and exotic animals in the city.

It also would prevent such instruments from being displayed in the presence of the wildlife. That’s a problem because the circus’ insurance carriers require the presence of bullhooks around elephants, at least in some circumstances, according to circus chairman Paul Leavy. Bullhooks typically feature a pointed hook atop a long handle.

“It’s simply used to guide the animal. Chances are, we don’t even need to have that tool” to be put to use, Mr. Leavy said. “You wouldn’t take your dog on a walk down Grant Street without a leash. We would not walk our elephants without a proper guide.”

He said the Shriners are weighing options to fight the legislation. Mr. Leavy has said animals at the circus don’t undergo pain or harm.

Zoo officials said they, too, never allow any animal abuse and follow widely accepted care standards and regulations. They argued the legislation is so broad, it would prevent the safe use of tools needed to protect caretakers, the animals and the public.

Both the zoo and the Shriners sought, unsuccessfully, a legislative amendment to ban “improper use” of tools.

But Brian Bonsteel, president at Humane Action Pittsburgh, said he couldn’t support that because “there is no proper way to use a bullhook.” Advocates called it an outdated weapon, not a guide, that’s used in elephant training and later to instill fear.

“You would be arrested if you treated your dog by training it with one of these things,” Mr. Bonsteel said. His group and the Humane Society of the United States are among the legislation’s backers.

Supporters pointed to California, Rhode Island and a host of other places that passed similar restrictions.

“It’s time for Pittsburgh to catch up,” Councilwoman Natalia Rudiak said.