Animal-rights activists have been calling for an end to elephant performances for years. They pointed to elephant handlers’ use of bullhooks-long, hooked poles-to train the animals to perform tricks and dance routines.
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The Humane Society says more than a dozen other circuses continue with elephant acts, but none tour as widely or are as well-known as Ringling Bros.
About 10 million people attend Ringling events each year, according to Alana Feld, Ringling’s executive vice president and show producer.
Their final performance was streamed live on Facebook and on the circus’ website.
The move means early retirement for the circus’ 11 remaining Asian elephants that range in age from 6-year-old April to 48-year-old Asia. Tyke’s fate became a rallying cry for groups such as PETA, who explained the animal’s behavior as the result of years of abuse.
They say they are phasing out the Asian elephants and moving them into a conservation center in Florida.
There, the former stage performers will roam, hang out and play with an assortment of toys, balls and even massive truck tires leftover from Feld Entertainment’s Monster Jam events. Many cities, such as Asheville, North Carolina, have recently passed laws meant to protect elephants or remove exotic animals, including elephants, from city-owned facilities.
The elephants may be gone, but other animals will stay put. Researchers want to find out why so they are using the center’s elephants to study the cancer-fighting gene entangled in their DNA. But he also acknowledged a change in public opinion toward the use of animals for entertainment purposes. Hawaii is poised to be the first state to ban them and more than a dozen municipalities have enacted their own prohibitions.
“Their transition to the CEC is going to be a bunch of old friends reunited; handlers with the elephants, elephants with other elephants”, the company said in a press release. The sanctuary houses 29 elephants but expects 13 more by 2018, after Ringling Bros…
At least 17 countries have outlawed circus acts featuring wild animals, but the practice remains largely legal in the United States. More and more outfits are halting the acts, and the exit of Ringling as a “political protector” of the use of elephants and the bullhook is likely to spur more local and state governments to crack down on the practice, he said. SeaWorld Entertainment Inc is phasing out killer whale shows at its amusement parks, halting the breeding of orcas in captivity as of last month and replacing the extravaganzas with what it terms educational encounters by 2019.
Elephants will perform for the last time at the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus on Sunday.
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The final show took place in Providence, Rhode Island. “And we felt this was the right time to do it”, he said.
