Retirement for elephants means show can’t go on
UNITED STATES: The greatest show on Earth is coming to an end in May.
The Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey, America’s oldest circus, has announced that it will close after 146 years.
High production costs, declining ticket sales and the retirement of elephants have forced the closure.
Kenneth Feld, chief executive of Feld Entertainment, which owns the show, said: ‘‘The circus and its people have continually been a source of inspiration and joy to my family and me, which is why this was such a tough business decision to make.’’
PT Barnum, a businessman and mayor of Bridgeport, Connecticut, founded the circus in 1875 as PT Barnum’s Great Travelling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan and Hippodrome.
After merging with a circus run by James Bailey, it acquired the nickname The Greatest Show on Earth.
Ringling Brothers was founded in 1884 in Wisconsin.
The circuses were merged in 1919 and the resulting show was bought by the Feld family in the 1950s after suffering financial setbacks during the Great Depression.
While the Ringling brothers had been known for traditional circus fare, Barnum was called the Prince of Humbugs and was known as a shameless promoter of hoaxes, freak shows and zoological curiosities.
One such object was the Fiji mermaid, the head and torso of a young monkey sewn to the body and tail of a fish.
Barnum launched his travelling circus after fires in 1865 and 1868 destroyed his American Museum in New York City.
Two whales were boiled to death in their tanks during one inferno.
In recent years legal battles with animal welfare groups have plagued the circus.
In 2014 it was forced to retire a number of performing elephants, and had announced that it would stop using them altogether by 2018.
Now the circus itself will close. Trudy Williams, who trained elephants for the show, said: ‘‘It is sad. You feel it is the end of an era.’’
Ringling Brothers had been caught up in a 14-year lawsuit over allegations by welfare groups that it was mistreating its animals.
The case was thrown out after a witness was found to have been paid for his testimony and by 2014 the plaintiffs, including the Humane Society and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, had been ordered to pay the circus US$25 million to reimburse its legal fees.
Animal groups including People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) celebrated yesterday’s (Sunday’s) decision.
Ingrid Newkirk, the group’s president, said: ‘‘After 36 years of Peta protests which have awoken the world to the plight of animals in captivity, Peta heralds the end of what has been the saddest show on Earth for wild animals - and asks all other animal circuses to follow suit, as this is a sign of changing times.’’ - The Times