The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Elephant’s death inspires push to pass new bill
The Humane Society urges Massachusetts officials to act
GOSHEN — The Humane Society of the United States has called on Massachusetts legislators to pass “a bill to ban the use of elephants, big cats, primates and bears in traveling exhibits and shows” in the name of Beulah, an elephant owned by Goshen’s Commerford Zoo who died at the Big E in West Springfield in September.
In a Thursday release, Humane Society officials said that Beulah, along with the Commerford Zoo’s other elephants, Minnie and Karen, had been forced to lead “miserable lives” that serve as “stark reminders of the cruelty that wild animals face when forced into captivity and life on the road for human entertainment.”
“The use of wild animals for entertainment is not only horrific and inhumane for the animal, it also creates serious public safety risks as we have seen over and over again,” said Laura Hagen, Massachusetts state director for the Humane Society of the United States, in the release. “In Massachusetts, a fair goer was bitten in 2017 by a capuchin monkey, and Commerford elephant rides have resulted in injuries to the public, including children and staff.”
The group called for the Commerford Zoo to release Minnie, the last of the three elephants still alive, to a wildlife sanctuary in September.
“Wild animals used as mere props in traveling shows are subjected to
violent training methods and kept in grossly substandard conditions as they are hauled from city to city in poorly ventilated trucks and trailers,” said Massachusetts State Representative Lori Ehrlich, a colead sponsor of the bill, in the release. “No elephant, tiger or other wild animal should ever have to perform or be forced to interact with people. They deserve better lives without question.”
Thetreatmentofthe three elephants has been a matter of controversy in recent years, as the Nonhuman Rights Project has filed multiple lawsuits seeking a writ of habeas corpus to move them to a wildlife sanctuary.
The organization argues that, considering the elephant’s cognitive abilities and sense of self, the animals should be considered autonomous beings and thus legal persons who cannot be detained under the law.
It has not yet received such a writ. Connecticut judges have dismissed the group’s cases to date.
Tim Commerford, coowner of the Commerford Zoo, has previously described the elephants as members of the family and said they are appropriately cared for.
“If I don’t see them on a daily basis, I’m thinking about them, because I grew up with them all my life,” he said. “They’re family. The animal activists can say what they want about it, but they’re part of our family.”