[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 125 (Thursday, September 23, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H8560]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                CAPTIVE ELEPHANT ACCIDENT PREVENTION ACT

  (Mr. FARR of California asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. FARR of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise today, first of all, to 
thank game show host Bob Barker for coming to Washington, D.C. in 
support of the bill I am introducing today and sorry that he had to 
have emergency surgery. We all wish him well as he recovers from this.
  Today I am introducing the Captive Elephant Accident Prevention Act, 
H.R. 2929, to make circuses more humane for animals and safer for 
spectators. I am not interested in seeing the circus industry unduly 
hindered or encumbered. My bill is a practical, reasonable bill that 
addresses a fundamental wrong in the entertainment industry.
  The problem is that we have to break the will of wild beasts, big 
beasts that are 10 feet tall, weigh several tons, in order for them to 
perform stunts at circuses. They use high-powered electric prods. They 
tie them up. And we can see that when an animal goes wild, as this one 
did in Honolulu, that the only way to stop them from injuring people is 
to shoot them. That is what happened in this case where an animal had 
57 rounds shot into him before he was brought down.
  Animals like elephants are not horses or dogs. They cannot be trained 
for those purposes. I urge my colleagues to join me in cosponsoring 
H.R. 2929.

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