Elephants in a traveling animal show will not perform at the Colorado Renaissance Festival this year, after Colorado Parks and Wildlife refused to issue a permit.
The Animal Activist Legal Defense Project announced the permit denial to Texas-based elephant exhibitor Trunks and Humps in a news release Friday. A spokesperson for CPW did not immediately return a request for comment from The Colorado Sun.
The state agency’s decision to not issue a permit comes after animal rights attorneys with the Animal Activist Legal Defense Project at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law threatened to sue CPW over the issue.
Attorneys claimed that Trunks and Humps’ traveling animal act was solely for entertainment purposes, which would disqualify the show as an educational program under Colorado law.
The legislation, passed in 2021, prohibits the use of elephants, primates, bears, dolphins and other animals in traveling animal acts. A person who violates the act would be charged with a misdemeanor and could face a fine ranging from $250 to $1,000 per violation.
“Denying this permit was both the legally correct and moral decision,” Justin Marceau, DU law professor and director of the AALDP, said in a news release. “Colorado has admirably outlawed the degrading, abusive use of elephants and other animals in cruel traveling circuses. These animals deserve to be treated with dignity, not dragged from city to city and forced to perform tricks for our entertainment.”
An elephant behavior expert from Cornell University, who told the AALDP that the show forces the animals to participate in unnatural behaviors, said denying the permit was the right thing to do.
“The decision follows the science and upholds Colorado law by recognizing that the tricks that Trunks and Humps forces elephants to perform under threat of a bull hook are not natural behaviors,” Michael Pardo, an elephant behaviorist from the university said in a statement sent along with the news release. “This is a win for both animal welfare and the rule of law.”
The Colorado Renaissance Festival typically attracts thousands of people to Larkspur each summer. According to its website, the elephant show was “an educational experience” that teaches attendees about the animals’ care and conservation.
The festival’s organizers could not immediately be reached.
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