In the News
"Elephants not exotic, P.G. mayor contends"
(Copyright 2007 Hollinger Canadian Newspapers Limited Partnership)
PRINCE GEORGE -- Performing elephants should not be banned from the city as far as Mayor Colin Kinsley is concerned.
Commenting Monday on a draft bylaw to keep all shows and circuses that use exotic animals away from Prince George, Kinsley argued elephants are actually domestic not exotic.
Kinsley said he's fully supportive of excluding circuses that force lions and tigers to jump through flaming hoops, "but for the life of me, I still have a problem with banning elephants."
"We talk about domestic animals and domesticated animals and farm animals in our country," he said. "Elephants are a domesticated animal in a very large portion of this world."
Elephants were used to retrieve buses out of ditches and do other forms of heavy lifting following the recent cyclone in Bangledesh, he noted.
"We think that an elephant is an exotic animal that shouldn't be made to do things and I just can't agree with that," he continued. "In other cultures, it's a domesticated animal."
Council ended up voting 6-2 to advance the draft bylaw to first reading, with Kinsley and Coun. Glen Scott voting against.
In late April, staff was directed to draft a bylaw after a majority of councillors agreed with the argument that exotic animals were being forced to do unnatural acts for the sake of entertainment and that such shows held no educational value.
Shows that include domestic animals, such as horses, will still be allowed.