BILL NUMBER: S5898

SPONSOR: BRISPORT
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the environmental conservation law, in relation to
prohibiting the administration of psychoactive drugs to an animal in a
zoo in certain situations

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section one amends the environmental conservation law by adding section
11-0541, which prohibits the use of psychoactive drugs on animals in
zoos for the purposes of procreation.

Section two sets the effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

The practice of using confined spaces in modern zoos can be disorienting
and harmful to non-human animals. Accordingly, many zoos in the United
States have resorted to using psychoactive drugs and anti-depressants to
              

alter the mood and behavior of their captive animals. For instance, an
Atlanta zoo reportedly put Thorazine in the Coca-Cola of a gorilla named
Willie B. every morning until he shuffled back and forth across his cage
with dulled eyes. According to Mel Richardson, who was working as a
veterinarian at the zoo at the time, "It was a little like watching the
men in One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest." Similarly, SeaWorld has dosed
its animals with benzodiazepine to make them more passive, the Central
Park Zoo has proscribed Prozac for a polar bear named Gus, and the Tole-
do Zoo has given zebras and wildebeest the antipsychotic haloperidol to
keep them calm.

However, one recent case that was raised by The New York Times in June
2021 is particularly troubling. When a female gorilla named Johari kept
fighting off the male she was placed with, her zoo dosed her with Prozac
until she allowed him to mate with her. Although there may be a need for
animals to procreate in order to sustain the ongoing survival of their
species, this practice of drugging animals to subdue them into sexual
intercourse is itself damaging to the animals' overall health. This
practice is particularly troubling when such captive breeding techniques
are used to maintain the stock of animals as attractions to be exploited
in modern zoos.

This legislation would prohibit the use of psychoactive drugs on animals
in order to force them to engage in sexual intercourse. The practive of
drugging or otherwise intoxicating unwilling and captive parties to
coerce sexual intercourse would readily be recognized as abusive were
the participants human, and this legislation will simply prohibit the
practice for captive non-human animals.

 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

2021-22: S7284

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:

To be determined.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.