Stars Shine Spotlight on Animal Bill

The Shambala Wild Animal Protection Act of 2000 likely would have received scant attention Wednesday at a hearing on Capitol Hill if not for the three actresses--and one Muppet--on hand to endorse it.

Tippi Hedren, best known as the woman nearly pecked to death in “The Birds,” her daughter Melanie Griffith, the statuesque Bo Derek and Kermit the Frog--there on behalf of the animal kingdom--accomplished in Washington what only Hollywood can: training a spotlight, however briefly, on a serious but little-noticed issue.

The topic this day was the bill by Rep. Tom Lantos (D-San Mateo) that would protect an alarming number of exotic animals being kept as pets, many of them sold out of car trunks as cubs and then banished to basements and backyards when they grow too big to handle.

Keeping such animals as pets can pose a threat to public safety, proponents reasoned, because they can attack without warning, as occurred this month with a 4-year-old Houston boy, whose arm was reattached after it was torn off by his uncle’s Bengal tiger.

Indeed, all three of the actresses have been mauled by lions: Hedren, who for 30 years has run a 60-acre sanctuary in Acton, Calif., for wild animals, has been attacked more than once. At age 19, Griffith required 50 stitches in her face when a lion playfully jumped her. And Derek was bitten in the shoulder in 1981 during the filming of “Tarzan, the Ape Man.”

Bills by rather obscure lawmakers from the minority party do not usually draw a powerhouse crowd. But there was Rep. David Dreier of San Dimas, one of the GOP leadership, who came not because he supports the legislation--he doesn’t--but because he is lately good pals with Derek, whom he reportedly is “quietly dating.” (They were seen shopping together in Century City two Sundays ago.)

The group made for a refreshingly weird scene at the long table in the usually staid Rayburn hearing room: Tippi, Bo, Melanie, the congressman and Kermit--three blond, one gray, one green.

“I’d like to thank all the people here with me today,” Lantos said.

“People?” Kermit croaked.

There are an estimated 7,000 tigers being kept as pets in the United States, about as many as live in the wild worldwide, said Hedren, founder of the Roar Foundation, which rescues wild animals.

Attacks “keep happening, but the illegal breeding and irresponsible selling of these wild animals as pets doesn’t stop,” Hedren said. “I always wondered why there were no federal laws to prevent this. . . . This is a public safety issue.”

Hedren spoke of animals brought to her sanctuary near death, including a black leopard abandoned in a Wyoming garage in freezing cold, suffering from frostbite of the ears, paws and tail.

The bill would amend the Animal Welfare Act by restricting the killing, personal possession, breeding and sale of lions, tigers, leopards and the like. Licenses would be required to own such animals. The measure would also attempt to end “canned hunting” on ranches where captive animals are stalked by hunters for sport.

It was star power that drew the cameras Wednesday, though how far that will go toward passage this session remains to be seen.

Dreier chose his words carefully when asked to address the problem of wild animal captivity: “It is obvious steps need to be taken to ensure the safety of animals and of people,” he said, never embracing the bill he believes calls for too much federal intervention.

Still, the presence of three accomplished actresses on the arms of Lantos--dubbed “Tommy’s Angels” by the Washington press--was not lost on the Hill.

“I just beg you for your support of this bill,” Griffith implored breathlessly before the group retreated to the members’ dining room for lunch, where several lawmakers fawned shamelessly and crowds parted in the hallways to make sure Derek got on the elevator first.