No More Performances for Abusement!

Tuesday, San Francisco’s enlightened Board of Supervisors voted on the formal and final reading of a measure to ban performances of wild or exotic animals for public entertainment! Despite the encouraging support for this ban previously, we wanted to wait for this final step to share what we hoped would be wonderful news.

IDA rejoices with, and is grateful to, the many others of you who helped to make this landmark protection for exotic and wild animals possible. Specifically, IDA acknowledges the League of Humane Voters of California; their director, Dr. Alison Stanley, who worked with their former director, Dr. Richard McLellan, to bring this ban to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in the first place. We also celebrate the Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) and the San Francisco March for Elephants for helping to make this a reality! We also applaud the Supervisors who introduced and supported this enlightened effort by voting unanimously in support of this measure. San Francisco is now the largest city to adopt such a sweeping prohibition on the commercial use of wild animals for public entertainment.

Thanks to your help, IDA was able to attend the meetings and work with local supporters to ensure that such frivolous, inhumane, and dangerous (to the wild animals and to the public) acts are banned in San Francisco. The implications are wide-ranging, since these acts also take away from much-needed conservation efforts and the need to teach respect for – not exploitation of – these magnificent and intelligent animals.

The measure bars any public showing, carnival, fair, parade, petting zoo, ride, race, film shoot or other undertaking in which wild or exotic animals “are required to perform tricks, fight or participate as accompaniments for the entertainment, amusement or benefit of an audience.”

Let this now reinvigorate efforts to protect other animals; in San Francisco and everywhere. Given the burgeoning scientific and common knowledge attesting to the physical and psychological needs of ALL animals, there can be no reasonable justification for the continuation of practices that, by their very nature, are now known to be highly abusive. Now that we know better, we can do better!

For more information, click here and here.