Unlike most of us, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus’ iconic elephants will be retiring early. Last March, the company announced plans to send the traveling members of the herd to its 200-acre Center for Elephant Conservation in central Florida by 2018, where they would rejoin 29 Asian elephants already in retirement.
It turns out, they’re taking their curtain call a year-and-a-half in advance, and will be off the touring schedule by May of this year.
Having showcased Asian elephants for over a century, Ringling’s decision to enact an early retirement might seem surprising, but given the growing number of cities and municipalities that are banning the use and appearance of exotic animals for entertainment, keeping them on the docket any longer would have been even more surprising. With three touring troupes traveling to 115 cities a year, the price of fighting legislation in each jurisdiction and organizing a workable schedule became cost-prohibitive.
“All of the resources used to fight these things can be put toward the elephants,” said Ringling parent company, Feld Entertainment’s CEO, Kenneth Feld.
Alana Feld, the company’s executive vice president said, “There’s been somewhat of a mood shift in our consumers. A lot of people aren’t comfortable with us touring with our elephants.” With the proposed expansions needed at the CEC to accommodate the incoming retirees, “we realized we could actually do this a lot sooner.”
The early retirement is looked at by animal rights organizations as a triumph. PETA and the Humane Society of the United States had both alleged on various occasions that the circus was abusive to its elephants. In 2014, Feld Entertainment won millions in settlements from a number of organizations over the allegations, ending a dispute over a decade long.
In their retirement, the elephants will be a part of cancer research and help as “members” of the Elephant Endotheliotropic Herpesvirus (EEHV) Consortium. EEHV is considered the single greatest health threat to the Asian elephant. Unfortunately, encroachment on habitat and poaching are also major threats; both the Asian elephant and the African elephant are on the endangered species list.
Interested in helping elephants yourself? Check out this link.
