Illinois Bans Traveling Acts Using Monkeys, Bears and Big Cats

At the 2025 Sangamon County Fair, two capuchin monkeys were dressed in costumes and strapped to dogs racing around a small track, an act Illinois has since banned. Marc Ayers, Illinois state director for Humane World for Animals, attended the disturbing Banana Derby performance and said the monkeys repeatedly grasped at the guardrails as the dogs rounded the track.

Big cats were still being used in traveling performances across Illinois. Culpepper & Merriweather Circus toured the state with performing big cats in 2025. The circus has a history of federal animal welfare violations involving its big cats.

In a USDA case involving the circus, an administrative judge found that a surviving tiger cub named Tubbs received inadequate nutrition and became significantly underweight. The judge also found that the circus failed to have an attending veterinarian and a veterinary care plan for its big cats. The USDA confiscated Tubbs and relocated him to another facility. The judge concluded that the circus and its manager had willfully violated the Animal Welfare Act and ordered the circus's federal exhibitor license suspended for at least six months.

Illinois has finally banned those types of traveling animal acts for several wild animal species. Governor JB Pritzker signed House Bill 4255 on June 26, 2026. The law took effect July 1 as Public Act 104-0485. The law covers cougars, elephants, jaguars, lions, tigers, nonhuman primates, bears, leopards other than Amur leopards, and hybrids of the covered animals.

A lion is cruelly forced to perform for a live audience. Big cats are among the wild animals now covered by Illinois’ expanded traveling animal act ban. Photo: Norenko Andrey/Shutterstock. 

A traveling animal act involves transporting animals between locations for performances in connection with mobile or traveling animal housing. Covered performances include fairs, circuses, rides, trade shows, petting zoos, carnivals, parades, races, animal acts, and similar events where animals are required to perform tricks, give rides, or participate for the entertainment, amusement, or benefit of a live audience.

Under the new law, a person who knowingly allows a covered animal to participate in a traveling animal act commits a Class A misdemeanor.

Illinois enacted its original ban on elephants in traveling animal acts in 2017. That law took effect in 2018 and specifically covered African and Asian elephants protected under the federal Endangered Species Act. Bears, primates, and the big cat species added by the new law were previously not covered.

Animal welfare groups, including Humane World for Animals and Lincoln Park Zoo, supported House Bill 4255. They cited the stress that repeated travel, confinement, and performances can place on wild animals.

The law includes an exemption for performances held at a USDA-licensed, non-mobile permanent institution or fixed facility when that institution or facility conducts the performance. For example, a qualifying permanent zoo could conduct an animal presentation at its own facility.