Ringling Bros.: Circuses elephant-free in 3 years
POLK CITY, Fla. — Animal rights activists were stunned when the parent company of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus announced it would eliminate elephants from its circus performances by 2018.
“Monumental and long overdue,” was how the Animal Welfare Institute put it.
“Startling and tremendously exciting,” The Humane Society of the United States said in a statement.
And the International Fund for Animal Welfare called it “a giant step in the right direction.”
But activists soon focused on the timing, questioning why it will take three years to phase out the elephants from the traveling circus shows.
“Many of the elephants are painfully arthritic, and many have tuberculosis, so their retirement day needs to come now,” wrote Ingrid E. Newkirk, president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, in a statement. “If the decision is serious, then the circus needs to do it NOW.”
Executives at Feld Entertainment, Ringling’s parent company, say it will take three years to build proper facilities for them on the 200-acre plot of land in central Florida that’s already being used as an elephant conservation center. They have repeatedly denied that the elephants are mistreated in any way in the circuses.
“Each elephant requires a certain amount of space and a certain amount of barn area,” said Stephen Payne, Feld’s spokesman, adding that permits, drainage issues and other logistics must be worked out. The company intends for the elephants to live out their years on the property, and since one elephant is 69, they must plan for the long haul to care for the crop of gentle giants.
The decision to phase out elephants from the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus comes at a time when cities across the United States are cracking down on exotic animal displays.
Even before Thursday’s announcement that the elephants will be phased out of Ringling’s performances by 2018, company officials already said they were pulling out of certain cities because of newly enacted restrictions.
Feld executives said the decision to end the circus’s century-old tradition of showcasing elephants was difficult and debated at length. Elephants have often been featured on Ringling’s posters over the decades.
