Imagine being
ripped from your family, confined to small, dirty enclosures and transported to strange places. You are forced to perform
painful and unfamiliar tasks, dances, and movements. If you resist, you are
beaten, screamed at, or another horrific form of intimidation. Your captors get paid while you waste away,
psychologically broken and physically brutalized.This is the average life of a wild animal in a circus or traveling act today. Somehow, in the year 2026, the majority of U.S. states still allow this shameful exploitation.
Sign the petition to save wild animals like big cats, bears, primates, and elephants from suffering in circuses, fairs, and traveling acts!Luckily, Illinois is leading the way in advocating for these animals, and we need your help spreading the word that this is the kind of action people want. Then, maybe, politicians at the federal level will protect all animals from exploitation in circuses, regardless of the state they're in.
Almost a decade ago, Illinois started by banning the use of elephants in these types of acts and spaces. Elephants have the largest brain of any land animal on the planet -- a brain that gives them the capacity for immense intelligence, joy and community…as well as
fear, sadness, and pain. Elephants should be greatly respected and deeply admired, not forced to perform cheap tricks through intimidation and torture. Illinois recognized that and made it illegal to use elephants in circuses, fairs, traveling acts, and so on. And thankfully, they didn't stop there.
With the passage of HB 4255, Illinois
bestowed equal protection on big cats, bears, and primates.
But unfortunately, this victory highlights a grim reality:
only 12 states have taken any action to protect wild animals from circuses and traveling acts!That's why we need to use the news out of Illinois to put pressure on the United States Department of Agriculture to take definitive, sweeping action.
Sign the petition demanding that United States Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins move to ban the use of all wild animals in traveling acts in the United States!