Ringling Bros. to Nix Elephant Acts; PETA Still Not Happy

Animal rights group says three years is too long to wait to stamp out pachyderm performances

Ringling Bros. Elephant Predicts FIFA World Cup Winner At STAPLES Center Los Angeles
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This will be music to the big, floppy ears of elephants everywhere. The folks at PETA, however? Not so much.

The Field Family, which owns the parent company of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, said Thursday that it is phasing out the elephant performers from its traveling show.

The phase-out will be completed in 2018, when all of the 13 elephants touring with the three Ringling Bros. circus units will be relocated to the Ringling Bros. Center for Elephant Conservation in Florida, joining  more than 40 other elephants that currently reside there.

Kenneth Field, chairman and CEO of Ringling’s parent company Field Entertainment, called the decision, “The most significant change we have made” since the conservation center opened two decades ago.

“This is the most significant change we have made since we founded the Ringling Bros. Center for Elephant Conservation in 1995. When we did so, we knew we would play a critical role in saving the endangered Asian elephant for future generations, given how few Asian elephants are left in the wild,” Field said. “Since then, we have had 26 elephant births. No other institution has done or is doing more to save this species from extinction, and that is something of which I and my family are extremely proud.”

Field added that the decision was “not easy,” but is “in the best interest of our company, our elephants and our customers.”

Ringling Bros. producers Nicole and Alana Field said that they “feel we have a responsibility to preserve the esteemed traditions that everyone expects from a Ringling Bros. performance while striving to keep the show fresh and contemporary for today’s families,” noting that the decision will allow Ringling Bros. to “maintain our focus on elephant conservation while allowing our business to continue to meet shifting consumer preferences.”

Animal rights organization PETA hailed the decision as a victory,  but still took issue with its timetable.

“Three years is too long for a mother elephant separated from her calf, too long for a baby elephant beaten with the sharp fireplace-poker like weapons called bullhooks that Ringling handlers use routinely, too long for an animal who would roam up to 30 miles a day in the wild to be kept in shackles,” the organization said on its website. “If the decision is serious, then the circus needs to do it NOW. Then we need to look at what happens to them afterward because Ringling’s Florida compound is no sanctuary and Ringling is still in the profit business, at the animals’ expense.”

 

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