In just a few minutes, you can help protect elephants, tigers, bears, and other wild animals forced to perform in traveling circuses by urging your representative to support the Traveling Exotic Animal Protection Act! Exotic animals used in traveling circuses in the U.S. are often subjected to horrendous physical and psychological abuse. Their movement is severely restricted for extremely long periods of time, and they are often confined to cages that are barely larger than their own bodies. Rigorous, physically abusive training methods involving electric shocks, beatings, and food deprivation are used to force them to perform tricks that are unnatural and meaningless to them. Fortunately, Representative Jim Moran of Virginia has introduced H.R. 3359, the Traveling Exotic Animal Protection Act (TEAPA), a new bill that would prohibit exhibiting any animal who had been transported within 15 days. If passed, this would mean unprecedented improvements for animals used in circuses and other traveling acts!
Recognizing that "traveling circuses are detrimental to animal welfare because of the adverse effects of captivity and transport," TEAPA seeks to amend the Animal Welfare Act in a manner that promotes the physical and mental health of the animals as well as the safety of both the animals and the public. Currently, animals used in traveling circuses endure severe physical and psychological abuse as they are hauled across the country in poorly ventilated trailers and boxcars and kept in tight chains or cages barely larger than their own bodies. These poor animals travel for up to 50 weeks out of the year in all weather and are forced to eat and sleep in the same place where they "do their business," and access to the basic necessities of food, water, and veterinary care is often inadequate or even wholly lacking. Now, it's in your hands to help pass this landmark legislation!
Ringling Bros. and its parent company, Feld Entertainment, are misleadingly labeling this important bill as an "attack" on "another American tradition" and spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to oppose it—which is why it is so important that you take a moment now to contact your federal representative about H.R. 3359! Let your representative know that animal abuse is not a tradition worth supporting!
How to Help
If your representative is already a sponsor of this bill (find out here), please take a moment to thank him or her for making the compassionate decision to support the Traveling Exotic Animal Protection Act. If not, let your representative know that you are a constituent and ask him or her to sign on as a cosponsor of H.R. 3359.
Please call the U.S. House of Representatives switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask to be connected to your Congressperson, or find their direct contact information at this website.
When calling, remember to say:
Follow up your call by sending a polite letter to your Congressperson reiterating your urgent request. Feel free to use the sample letter below, but remember that personalized comments ensure that your message is read.
Finally, please share this urgent alert with your friends and family! Thank you for your compassion!