Many zoos and circuses today are using inhumane techniques to train their elephants. The methods often involve the use of a bullhook, or a tool used to poke and punish the animals. The bullhook is made of metal and is highly painful to the elephant. The trainer uses the tool to exert pressure on the elephant's sensitive areas and ultimately coax it into performing.

Perhaps the best evidence of how utterly damaging bullhooks are to elephant welfare is from an undercover investigation of Carson & Barnes Circus1. Tim Frisco, the animal care director, was captured on video during profanity laden, violent, behind-the-scenes training sessions.

Frisco describes how to use the bullhook by instructing trainers to "Sink that hook and give it everything you got." He encourages them to "hurt 'em" and "make 'em scream," emphasizing that "when you hear that screaming then you know you got their attention."

Bullhooks inflict serious injuries ranging from lacerations to abscesses to wounds. In 2019, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) voted to prohibit the use of bullhooks in elephant care and training by 2021 — a significant step forward for an organization that previously defended their use2.

The board hopes to abolish the tool entirely by 2023, and signed a statement of intent to extend the prohibition to "emergencies and non-routine medical care" by 2023, said AZA spokesman Rob Vernon3.

The use of bullhooks and other training methods that utilize pain or force are inhumane and simply should not be permitted for use anywhere. Though captive, these elephants still have the right to live healthy and comfortable lives without humans torturing them.

Because virtually all circuses that use elephants use bullhooks to control them, banning bullhooks is a de facto ban on using elephants in circuses2.

Multiple countries and major international cities have already made the humane decision to prohibit the use of wild animals in circuses and traveling shows including England, Greece, Italy, Madrid, and Paris.

At the federal level, advocates cannot consistently rely on either the Animal Welfare Act or the Endangered Species Act, due to these statutes' narrow provisions, standing limitations, and inconsistent enforcement4. Only two states have defined suffering and abuse clearly enough in their statutes to enable effective prosecution of elephant mistreatment4.

This cruelty will not cease until the US Department of Agriculture takes an official stand against it.

Sign the petition asking the US Secretary of Agriculture to prohibit the use of bullhooks along with other force-based techniques when it comes to training circus and zoo animals.

More on this issue:

1. "Protect Wild Animals in Traveling Shows: A Guide to Ending the Use of Wild Animal Acts in your Community."
2. Animal Legal Defense Fund (2019), "Prohibiting Circuses and Traveling Shows that Use Wild Animals."
3. Scottie Andrew, CNN (21 August 2019), "Zoos will phase out the elephant bullhook, a sharp baton used to control them and a lightning rod for criticism."
4. Trevor J. Smith, Florida State University College of Law (2013), "Bullhooks and the Law: Is Pain and Suffering the Elephant in the Room?"