To: The Ohio State House, The Ohio State Senate, and Governor Mike DeWine
Ban Traveling Elephant Acts in Ohio
Elephants in traveling shows live a dismal life in which they are dominated, imprisoned, and violently trained. They are kept in small trailers are chained when not preforming which typically results in the elephants standing in their own waste. They rarely have protection from harsh weather conditions, receive adequate breaks, a proper diet or veterinary care. "Trainers" routinely use bull hooks, beat, shock, starve, and whip elephants until they perform meaningless tricks that comply with their master's commands.
Why is this important?
I am starting this petition because it is unethical to keep elephants in trailers or on chains, thus depriving them of their biological needs to socialize and physical needs to exercise (in the wild elephants live in large groups of up to 100 elephants and have been known to mourn the loss of a member for days, they also typically walk 40 miles each day which is crucial to their health and longevity). Elephants have to be "broken" in order to work for humans; the use of bull hooks, electric shocks, food deprivation, and other forms of abuse cause extreme physical and emotion damage on these beautiful creatures. I have personally seen elephants chained to trailers while waiting to perform in 90+ degree heat without any shelter or water for hours while standing in their own waste. I have also seen the wounds and scars on these elephants casued by years of being repeatedly beat, shocked, and tormented. Ohio is better than this, let's join Illinois and ban traveling elephant acts in our state!