Ringling Bros. to eliminate elephant performances
Early retirement for icon of ‘The Greatest Show on Earth’
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey announced on Thursday that they will be eliminating elephants from all circus performances by 2018.
Under the plan, 13 Asian elephants currently traveling with the three Ringling Bros. circus units will be relocated to the Ringling Bros. Center for Elephant for Conservation in Florida. There they will join the rest of the Ringling Bros. herd of more than 40 elephants.
Elephants have long symbolized “The Greatest Show on Earth.”
“This is the most significant change we have made since we founded the Ringling Bros. Center for Elephant Conservation in 1995,” Kenneth Feld, Chairman and CEO of Feld Entertainment, the parent company of Ringling Bros., said in a statement. “When we did so, we knew we would play a critical role in saving the endangered Asian elephant for future generations, given how few Asian elephants are left in the wild. Since then, we have had 26 elephant births.”