PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) – Gov. Don Carcieri has vetoed a bill he says would make it legal to release animals from a zoo or a circus.

The bill changes a section of state laws that used to deal with the release of caged animals in a park or a zoo.

The way the new law is written, it would make it illegal for anyone to “willfully and permanently release a domesticated, diseased or non-indigenous animal in a park, circus, zoo or other such facility.”

But Jeff Neal, the governor’s spokesman, said there is a dangerous deletion in the new language. The new law removes the words “from captivity.” The old law used to prevent people from releasing animals “from captivity in zoos and other facilities.”

Neal said that means animals could be released anywhere other than in a park, zoo or circus.

“It would be easy to dismiss this legislation as silly if it were not disturbing,” the governor said in his veto message.