General Assembly Raised Bill No. 413
February Session, 2020 LCO No. 2448
Referred to Committee on ENVIRONMENT
Introduced by:
(ENV)
AN ACT CONCERNING THE USE OF EXOTIC OR WILD ANIMALS IN
TRAVELING ANIMAL ACTS.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General
Assembly convened:
1 Section 1. (NEW) (Effective July 1, 2021) (a) No person shall cause a
2 performance of or allow for the participation of an exotic or wild animal
3 in a traveling animal act. The provisions of this subsection shall not be
4 construed to apply to: (1) An exhibition at a nonmobile, permanent
5 wildlife sanctuary or institution, facility, zoo or aquarium accredited by
6 the Association of Zoos and Aquariums or the Global Federation of
7 Animal Sanctuaries; (2) any environmental education program
8 administered by any entity (A) accredited by the Association of Zoos
9 and Aquariums, (B) engaged in falconry in accordance with the
10 provisions of section 26-67e of the general statutes, or (C) permitted by
11 the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection pursuant to
12 any provision of the general statutes, provided any animal used for such
13 purpose pursuant to this subdivision shall not be used for more than six
14 months in any year for such purpose and shall not be kept in a mobile
15 or traveling housing facility for more than twelve hours of any day; and
16 (3) any university, college, laboratory or other research facility that
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17 holds a class C exhibitor's license issued by the United States
18 Department of Agriculture pursuant to 7 USC 54 and that possesses its
19 most recent inspection report from the United States Department of
20 Agriculture.
21 (b) The Commissioner of Energy and Environmental Protection may
22 enforce the provisions of this section in accordance with section 26-55 of
23 the general statutes.
24 (c) For the purposes of this section, (1) "cause a performance" means
25 to be responsible for a performance or to financially benefit as the
26 owner, operator or sponsor of a performance; (2) "environmental
27 education program" means any animal exhibition that is professionally
28 designed to impart knowledge or information for educational or
29 conservation purposes about an animal's behavior, habitat, or life cycle
30 and that is conducted by an individual who is qualified to impart such
31 knowledge and which does not include any performance of a behavior
32 by such animal that does not occur in such animal's wild state; (3) "exotic
33 or wild animal" includes any animal that is not domesticated, including,
34 but not limited to, any Canidae, cetartiodactyla, crocodilian,
35 elasmobranchii, Felidae, marsupialia, nonhuman primates,
36 perissodactyla, pinnipedia, probocidea, ratites, spheniscidae or Ursidae;
37 (4) "mobile or traveling housing facility" means any transporting vehicle
38 such as a truck, car, trailer, airplane, ship or railway car that is used to
39 transport or house animals while traveling to, from or between locations
40 for performance purposes; (5) "performance" means any circus, carnival,
41 display, exhibition, exposition, fair, fight, parade, petting zoo, race, ride
42 or trade show where an exotic or wild animal performs tricks, gives
43 rides or accompanies any person engaged in amusement or
44 entertainment for an audience; (6) "traveling animal act" means any
45 performance of exotic or wild animals where such animals are
46 transported to, from or between locations in a mobile or traveling
47 housing facility for the purposes of such performance; and (7) "wildlife
48 sanctuary" means any organization that is recognized as a wildlife
49 sanctuary under the Internal Revenue Code for the care of abused,
50 neglected or displaced exotic or wild animals and that does not engage
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51 in the commercial trade of any exotic or wild animal or exotic or wild
52 animal part or conduct entertainment or interaction events for the public
53 and that does not breed such exotic or wild animals.
This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following
sections:
Section 1 July 1, 2021 New section
Statement of Purpose:
To prohibit the use of exotic or wild animals in traveling circuses.
[Proposed deletions are enclosed in brackets. Proposed additions are indicated by underline, except
that when the entire text of a bill or resolution or a section of a bill or resolution is new, it is not
underlined.]
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