They don't have to; those "bullhooks" make the elephant handler's job a lot easier, and banning them amounts to the same thing as banning the circus. It gives the animal rights fruitcakes exactly what they've wanted (in L.A. proper, at least) and it gives the City's Official Village Imbeciles a fig leaf to hide behind (Hey, we just banned those cruel bullhooks, not the circus! It's not our fault if those stupid, cruel handlers have to resort to inhumane means to control those poor ceatures, after all!).

It's stupid sh** like this (and the elected idiots who cause it - and whose idiocy is WAY over the top, even when compared with the fools' circus in Washington) that makes me VERY glad I don't live in my home state any more...