Ringling Bros. circus to cease elephant acts in May

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.

The touring elephants were originally scheduled to be moved to the Ringling Bros.

All of the majestic animals are planned to retire by May this year, parent company Feld Entertainment announced today (Jan. 11).

Unfortunately, though the lovely animals will be living at the Center for Elephant Conservation, they will not be entirely free. It costs about $65,000 yearly to care for each elephant, Feld said.

LCA plans to continue protesting the exploitation of all animals in the circus and keep pushing for legislation that bans the cruel use of animals for entertainment.

Payne said the company’s elephants have tested negative for TB.

“We looked across the legislative landscape that was out there and it’s become a patchwork quilt of really unnecessary restrictions and prohibitions around the country”, Feld Entertainment spokesman Stephen Payne told the Post a year ago during the initial announcement that the circus would phase out its elephant acts.

Barnum and Bailey Circus is in Orlando this weekend at the Amway Center.

After more than three decades of undercover investigations and protests by Last Chance for Animals (LCA) and other animal activists, many cities have passed “anti-circus” and “anti-elephant” ordinances, which have made it increasingly more hard for Ringling Bros.

It has been repeatedly criticized – and even sued – by several animal rights groups, including the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Humane Society of the United States.

Aria said a scientist in Utah also plants on studying the animals’ blood samples to see if he can unlock a key to pediatric cancer; elephants have proven resistant to the disease.

Ringling’s new show will begin in July without the giant pachyderms.

“Rather than fight city hall, we chose to take those resources and use them for conservation of the species”, he said in a telephone interview. P.T. Barnum brought an Asian elephant named Jumbo to America in 1882.