“To amend the Animal Welfare Act to prohibit keeping elephants in captivity at zoological parks or safari parks, and for other purposes.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section states congressional findings concerning elephant behavior and needs, harms and costs of captivity (including an average lifespan of 17 years versus 50 years or more in the wild and annual care costs up to $100,000), zoo exhibit closures, and international bans. It declares the purpose of the Act to be to ban the display, husbandry, and breeding of African and Asian elephants in U.S. zoological parks and safari parks and to transfer existing elephants to authorized wildlife sanctuaries.
This section amends the Animal Welfare Act to prohibit safari parks (i.e., drive-through facilities with large enclosures for public viewing of animals in simulated natural environments) and zoological parks (i.e., zoos and aquariums exhibiting live animals to the public for educational or entertainment purposes) from exhibiting, housing, managing, or breeding African or Asian elephants after one year from enactment, except to complete transfers to authorized wildlife sanctuaries. It requires the Secretary to mandate that such exhibitors transfer all such elephants to accredited nonprofit sanctuaries dedicated to elephants' lifelong care (with no breeding, public exhibition for profit, or entertainment use, and meeting standards for space, veterinary care, and naturalistic environments) within three years from enactment. (African elephant has the meaning given in the African Elephant Conservation Act (16 U.S.C. 4244).)
This section requires the Secretary of Agriculture to (1) conduct a feasibility study, not later than one year after enactment, assessing the transfer of African elephants and Asian elephants to authorized wildlife sanctuaries (i.e., capacity, costs, and logistics); (2) establish a grant program supporting such sanctuaries in accommodating transferred elephants pursuant to new requirements under the Animal Welfare Act; and (3) develop public education materials on welfare benefits of prohibiting captivity of African elephants and Asian elephants. The section defines relevant terms for these purposes, including "African elephant" (as in the African Elephant Conservation Act), "authorized wildlife sanctuary" (as in the Animal Welfare Act), and "Secretary" (as the Secretary of Agriculture).