Elephants in Circuses: Analysis of Practice, Policy, and Future

”Based on current scientific understanding, this paper examines the health and care of elephants in the entertainment industries in the United States, and provides specific recommendations to inform elephant welfare regulation and law. Two questions are addressed here: What does science tell us with regard to elephant health and well-being under conditions of captivity? And what do these results imply for existing regulations? Conclusions based on this inquiry indicate that because of the severe detrimental physical and psychological effects of confinement and training, practices of captive breeding and wild- capture need to desist, and elephants kept in close confinement captivity are best served by transfer to accredited sanctuaries.”

1. Executive Summary
2. Scope of Inference, Assumptions, and Terminology
3. Elephants in American Circuses
4. Elephant Health and Care Regulation
   4.1 The Animal Welfare Act
   4.2 The Endangered Species
   4.3 State and local requirements and challenges
5. Scientific Assessment of Elephant Health and Welfare
5.1 Current models of vertebrate brains and behavior
5.2 Trauma and stress
5.3 Stress and elephants in captivity
5.4 Early trauma and captive breeding
6. Recommendations and Conclusions