Sponsors (2)
The bill prioritizes significant animal‑welfare gains by relocating zoo and safari elephants to accredited sanctuaries and funding planning/grants, but it shifts substantial short‑ and long‑term costs, capacity burdens, and some educational and local economic impacts onto zoos, sanctuaries, communities, and taxpayers.
Elephants held by zoos and safari parks will be moved to accredited nonprofit sanctuaries that cannot breed or use them for entertainment and must meet AWA space and veterinary-care standards, substantially improving welfare and long‑term care for those animals.
Authorized sanctuaries may receive federal grants or other support to help cover the high costs of caring for transferred elephants, reducing financial strain on nonprofit sanctuaries and increasing likelihood of long‑term care.
A required one‑year feasibility study will assess logistical, capacity, and cost issues before transfers, enabling safer, better‑planned relocations and reducing the risk of rushed or chaotic moves.
Zoos, safari parks, and tourism‑dependent small businesses will face substantial one‑time transfer and logistical costs and likely lose attendance revenue (with some transfers required within 1–3 years), threatening facility finances and local economies.
Sanctuaries will incur very large ongoing care costs per elephant (reported up to ~$100,000/year) and may lack capacity, requiring expansions, sustained subsidies, or emergency relocations that strain nonprofits and potentially taxpayers.
If sanctuary capacity or planning is insufficient, transfers could lead to inadequate care or costly emergency relocations for elephants; nearby rural communities may also face land‑use and infrastructure impacts from sanctuary expansion.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Bans exhibiting, housing, managing, and breeding African and Asian elephants in U.S. zoos and safari parks and requires transfer of existing elephants to accredited nonprofit sanctuaries within three years.
Prohibits U.S. zoological parks and safari parks from exhibiting, housing, managing, or breeding African and Asian elephants beginning one year after enactment, and requires any elephants held on enactment to be moved to accredited, nonprofit "authorized wildlife sanctuaries" within three years. Directs the Department of Agriculture to complete a one-year feasibility study on transfers, allows (but does not require) a grant program to help sanctuaries accept transferred elephants, and requires public education materials on the welfare benefits of ending elephant captivity.
Introduced May 15, 2025 by Nicole Malliotakis · Last progress May 15, 2025