Texas GOP's Convention Elephant Came From a Repeatedly Cited Exhibitor

An 8,600-pound elephant named Paige closed out Gov. Greg Abbott’s speech at the Texas Republican Convention in Houston on June 12, 2026, wearing an Abbott banner and urinating on the convention floor as cameras rolled. The moment went viral. The company that supplied her has a federal record that did not.

Paige belongs to Trunks and Humps, a Cut and Shoot, Texas exhibitor owned by Bill Swain, whose son Mike handles the animals. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has cited the company for animal-handling violations dating back more than a decade.

A Company With a Federal Record

The USDA’s own inspection reports document repeat safety violations. During a 2010 inspection and again in 2011 at a Colorado festival, an inspector cited Trunks and Humps under the Animal Welfare Act for walking Paige through a crowd with about one foot of space between the elephant and two small children, and no staff positioned between them.

The most recent citation came in December 2025. A USDA inspector flagged a critical safety violation after one of the company’s camels kicked a woman unconscious during a nativity event at a Houston church. She was hospitalized and released.

Despite the citations, the company has paid no fines and kept its license.

The Allegations and the Denials

Animal-welfare groups have made more serious claims that the USDA never acted on. Animal Defenders International says its 2004 undercover video showed Mike Swain striking the elephant Krissy with a bullhook and using a stun gun. The USDA declined to act in 2009 after Swain told the agency he did not then own or handle elephants.

The Swains dispute the footage. In 2017, when activists circulated a video they said showed an operator attacking Krissy, Swain denied it was Krissy or his employee. When Austin banned bullhooks in 2015, Swain defended the device, saying it “wasn’t the tool but how you used it that constituted torture.” He has pointed to his federal license as proof of good standing, arguing that USDA veterinarians “are qualified” and “animal activists are not.”

Citations Without Consequences

A USDA citation rarely becomes a penalty. In fiscal 2022 the agency documented more than 5,000 Animal Welfare Act violations and filed five formal complaints.

The gap is widening. The Animal Welfare Institute found in 2025 that warning letters now outnumber every other enforcement action combined, even as the agency lost more than a third of its inspectors. A warning carries no fine and does not stay on the licensee’s record.

A Dozen States Acted. Texas Moved to Block Local Bans.

Faced with that enforcement vacuum, states have written their own rules. At least a dozen now ban or restrict wild animals in traveling shows, including Colorado in 2021 and Washington in 2025. There is no federal ban.

Texas moved the opposite way. In 2025, House Bill 5042 would have barred cities and counties from regulating elephants as dangerous wild animals, stopping local bans before they could pass. It was left pending in committee.

What You Can Do

Write your representative and senators. Ask them to push the USDA to impose real penalties on repeat Animal Welfare Act violators and to support a federal ban on wild animals in traveling public events. Use our letter and call script below.
Check the record yourself. Search the USDA Animal Care database for certificate 74-C-0140 to read the inspection reports for Trunks and Humps firsthand.
Texas residents, oppose preemption bills. Tell your state legislators that bills like HB 5042 should not strip cities of the power to regulate dangerous wild-animal exhibits. Find them through the Texas Legislature directory.
Report what you see. If you witness unsafe handling at a fair or event, file a complaint with USDA APHIS, noting the date, location, and exhibitor name.