Farewell to pachyderms
Consumers’ mood shift cited
The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus will phase out elephants from its performances by 2018.
Polk City, Fla. — The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus said Thursday that it will phase out elephants from its performances by 2018.
Executives from Feld Enterprises Inc., Ringling’s parent company, said the decision to end the circus’ century-old tradition of showcasing elephants was difficult and debated at length. Elephants have often been featured on Ringling’s posters over the decades.
“There’s been somewhat of a mood shift among our consumers,” said Alana Feld, the company’s executive vice president. “A lot of people aren’t comfortable with us touring with our elephants.”
Within two hours of the announcement, animal rights groups took credit for the decision, saying the pressure put on the circus ultimately led to Feld’s decision. “For 35 years PETA has protested Ringling Bros.’ cruelty to elephants,” Ingrid E. Newkirk, president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, wrote in a statement. “We know extreme abuse to these majestic animals occurs every single day, so if Ringling is really telling the truth about ending this horror, it will be a day to pop the champagne corks, and rejoice. . . . If the decision is serious, then the circus needs to do it NOW.”
But company President Kenneth Feld said, “We’re not reacting to our critics; we’re creating the greatest resource for the preservation of the Asian elephant.”
The company owns 43 elephants, the largest herd of Asian elephants in North America, and 29 of the giant animals live at the company’s 200-acre Center for Elephant Conservation in central Florida. Thirteen animals will continue to tour with the circus before retiring to the center by 2018. One elephant is on a breeding loan to the Fort Worth Zoo.
Kenneth Feld said certain cities and counties have passed “anti-circus” and “anti-elephant” ordinances. The company’s three shows visit 115 cities throughout the year, and he said it is difficult to plan tours amid constantly changing regulations.
Los Angeles, Oakland, Calif, and Asheville, N.C., are among cities that have recently passed laws regulating showing of elephants and other wild animals.
The circus will continue to use tigers, dogs and goats, and a Mongolian troupe of camel stunt riders joined its Circus Xtreme show this year. More motor sports, daredevils and feats of human physical capabilities will likely be showcased. “There are endless possibilities,” said Juliette Feld, another executive vice president and a producer of Feld’s Marvel Universe Live, Disney on Ice and Monster Jam shows, among others.
It costs about $65,000 yearly to care for each elephant, and Kenneth Feld said the company would have to build new structures to house the retiring elephants at the center, located between Orlando and Tampa on a rural, ranchlike property. Since the center opened in 1995, 26 elephants have been born there.
Ringling’s elephants have been at the center of lawsuits and ongoing complaints from animal rights activists. In 2014, Feld won $25.2 million in settlements from a number of animal rights groups, including the Humane Society of the United States, ending a 14year legal battle over unproven allegations that Ringling circus employees mistreated elephants.