According to the AP report, Alana Feld, executive vice president of Feld Entertainment said that the elephants will live in Ringling’s 200-acre Center for Elephant Conservation in Florida.
Advertisement
Take a bow: Elephants perform their final show.
The 13 remaining performance elephants will move to a 200-acre facility in Polk City, Florida.
The center was established in 1995. Now officially retired, the elephants join 30 others at the Ringling Bros.
The last “Circus Extreme” show to involve the elephants.
A pair of female elephants stand together on March 8, 2016 in their enclosure at the Ringling Bros.
Thanks to the pressure of animal-rights groups, Ringling is putting its tortured elephants out to pasture; unfortunately, they will still be the subject of medical testing laboratories. “Our other exercises are created to keep our elephants circus-fit”.
Animal rights activists, including those from PETA, protested outside the last shows, calling for an end to all animal entertainment. The case had been tied up in litigation for 14 years.
The elephants were trotted out during the show on in Providence for a final “goodbye” to the audience, during which they propped themselves up on each other’s backs and performed headstands for the crowd. At a time when people didn’t venture far from home in their lifetime, and before movies and TV could bring images of exotic animals to everyone, circuses made it possible to see the exotic and unusual wildlife.
Feld was quick to own the company’s decision.
In January, I wrote that the next time the circus comes to town, the elephants wouldn’t be here.
Advertisement
“We are working to save an endangered species”, Payne said. “We’re creating the greatest resource for the preservation of the Asian elephant”. As an additional enticement, the center is building two new pools to allow the water-loving elephants that already use 80 gallons of water a day for drinking and bathing even more splash time.
