Bullhooks Back In Atlanta

A Fulton Superior Court judge in Georgia has essentially allowed the controversial use of bullhooks days before Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus arrived at Philips Arena in Atlanta.

Judge John Goger temporarily blocked the county’s ban on the use of bullhooks by elephant trainers. The decision apparently hinged on a lack of an intergovernmental agreement between the county and Atlanta.

Fulton County Commissioner Rob Pitts has been an advocate of the ban.

“The fact is that Fulton County has been providing animal control services in Atlanta, and Atlanta has been paying Fulton County for those services,” Pitts said in a statement to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “That amounts to an Implied Agreement/Contract.

Pitts said he worried that the judge’s order could extend to other animal control measures.

Fulton County was the first Georgia jurisdiction to approve a bullhook ban when lawmakers passed the measure in June.