Tina Smith: “the amendment is a very simple amendment. It simply says the circus can proceed on the Capitol Grounds without the use…”

“the amendment is a very simple amendment. It simply says the circus can proceed on the Capitol Grounds without the use of elephants. Now, this is the type of amendment that tends to bring some ridicule of me by others who have in some way expressed their concern about this. I am going to go through this because I think it needs to be said. I am going to be very methodical about it. It concerns two areas. One area is how the elephant in a circus is treated; not how you see the elephant out there doing its performance, but how it is treated in order to do that performance, and how it is kept, how it is transported. And, second, I am going to outline a number of incidents that have taken place in the past few years involving these huge, several-thousand-pound animals that are used in the circus. I am not going to in any way try to misrepresent facts. I realize-- and I want to say it up front--that in some areas the Ringling Bros. people do some very fine things with animals. I know for a fact that one of the trainers at Ringling Bros. who trains dogs saves some of those dogs from death at the pound and trains those animals to be used in the act. I do not object to any of that. This involves elephants. I hope that the cameras can pick this up, but this, in only a very small way, conveys the horror of what I am talking about, because I cannot explain it or show it with pictures. I have films.…”