Luna, a tiger residing at Black Pine Animal Sanctuary in Albion, is pictured in this file photo from 2020. Contributed image
INDIANAPOLIS — A bill authored by Noble County Rep. Dave Abbott that would ban direct contact with exotic animals including big cats and bears passed out of the House on Thursday and is now headed for the Indiana Senate.
Basically, for-profit baby animal snuggles would be a no go in Indiana if it gets signed into law.
Abbott’s House Bill 1248 “Direct contact with specified animals” passed out of the house on a split but bipartisan 68-27 vote.
All 27 representatives who voted against were Republicans like Abbott, while House Democrats joined other Republicans in helping get the bill passed.
Local representatives Denny Zent, R-Angola, and Ben Smaltz, R-Auburn, both supported the bill.
Sen. Blake Doriot (R-Goshen), who represents Elkhart County and one township in Kosciusko County, will carry the bill as it moves over to the Senate.
Abbott has worked on exotic animal legislation during his time in the Statehouse due to his cooperation with Black Pine Animal Sanctuary in Albion, but said this bill was something he worked on with the Humane Society of the United States.
The bill “prohibits a person that owns or possesses a specified animal from allowing a member of the public to come into direct contact, or enter into a proximity that allows for or permits direct contact, with the specified animal,” according to the bill’s summary. Violations of the law would be a Class B infraction.
The “specified animals” defined in the law can be summarized by your typical lions, tigers and bears, oh my!
Restricted animals would include big cats like those from the species of Felidae, such as Lions (Panthera leo), tigers (Panthera tigris), leopards (Panthera pardus), snow leopards (Panthera uncia), jaguars (Panthera onca), mountain lions (Puma concolor) as well as bears (Ursidae).
The bill carves out exceptions for owners, employees and other caretakers of facilities that keep those animals like zoos or animal sanctuaries like Black Pine, as well as veterinarians providing care to those animals.
It’s been a work in process as Abbott has carried similar exotic animal legislation every year, but this year tweaked it down to address the exotic animal snuggle business.
“It was actually the third year I’ve offered a bill similar to this,” Abbot said.
Indiana has had run-ins with exotic animal owners and zoos for years and Tim Stark, who was featured in the 2020 binge-watch staple “Tiger King,” was one such proprietor who has operated this type of business in the Hoosier state.
The bill is aimed at the baby animal encounters, primarily because of many stories of mistreatment of baby animals who are used for those visits. Abbott said, for example, big cats may get declawed — essentially an amputation of their toes — in order to prevent animals from scratching patrons, and can suffer medical complications or infections because of it.
The other issue is that once baby animals grow up, they go from being profitable to an expense, leading to many owners disposing of them either by selling them to private owners, shipping them overseas or even killing them outright.
“They just get rid of them,” Abbott said.
Legitimate zoos and animal sanctuaries have stopped these kind of animal encounters years ago, so Abbott said his bill would get Indiana to where most of the rest of the country and the animal world already is.
Abbott did remove some language that would have given the Indiana Department of Natural Resources rulemaking ability to add more animals to the banned list, but now any additions in the future would have to be made by the legislature, not the department.
“We want to put out a ‘You’re not welcome’ sign in Indiana,” Abbott said.
As for the split vote on his bill, Abbott said he ran into some legislators who had done animal encounters as kids and said it was a memorable, once-in-a-lifetime experience. Some lawmakers always felt the bill was unneeded, because this isn’t an issue in the state.
“It was really more of a ‘We don’t have a problem so why do we need a law?’ I understand and respect that,” Abbott said, but noted that he’d rather be proactive to a problem instead of reactive.
As for its chances in the Senate? Abbott thinks as long as it gets a hearing it should be able to make it out of the upper house and to the governor’s desk this spring.
“I think it will get traction over there, I’m fairly certain it will get a hearing. I think if it gets a hearing it will have some momentum,” he said.
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