Ringling Bros. elephant parading to the next circus site. Image: jacdupree, Creative Commons
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus announced Thursday that it plans to phase out elephants from its performances by 2018.
The announcement has some Great Lakes region animal rights groups feeling victorious and others uneasy.
“We are thrilled to hear that Ringling Bros. is going to phase out their elephant acts,” said Hannah West, executive director of the Alliance for Animals and the Environment based in Madison, Wisconsin.
The decision to phase out the performing elephants was due to a shift in public opinion, Alana Feld, executive vice president of Feld Entertainment, told the Associated Press in an exclusive statement.
“People are starting to know more about the circus in ways that they didn’t know before,” West said. “Now we know that the animals have to be hurt and harmed in order to get them to do these unnatural acts, rather than just bribing them with a peanut.”
There has been more attention to the cruelty circus animals face in small confined spaces and traveling nine months out of the year, said Dallas Rising, executive director of the Animal Rights Coalition, based in Minneapolis, Minn.
“It’s frustrating that it’s just about the elephants,” said Rising. “Elephants have been the poster-children for animals in the circus — they’ve been an effective one, but other animals have been forgotten.”
According to West, the Alliance for Animals and the Environment has focused on elephants because “they are the main money-makers” for Ringling Bros. The circus makes a huge profit on the performance shows featuring elephants and the elephant rides, said West.
“My concern is that people will think the issue is resolved and that’s not the case,” said Rising. “We need to continue to have conversations and to draw attention about signing animals up for a lifetime of performing without their consent.”
In a press statement, Feld Entertainment Chief Executive Officer Kenneth Feld said the 13 elephants on tour with Ringling Bros. will be relocated to the Ringling Bros. Center for Elephant Conservation in Florida by 2018.
“There they will join the rest of the Ringling Bros. herd of more than 40 elephants,” he said.
The repeated use of the word “retirement” describing the elephants’ lives post-circus is misleading, Rising said. “We tend to think of retirement as a vacation, that’s not the deal for these elephants.”
Rising said that during the elephants’ retirements on the 200-acre Center for Elephant Conservation, scientists use the elephants for research purposes.
“While it’s good elephants won’t be travelling around with the circus, my concern is that Ringling will use this as an opportunity to spin what they’re doing to be kinder than it actually is,” said Rising.
According to the center’s website, researchers there perform “ground-breaking research in assisted reproduction in Asian elephants.”
Ringling Bros. plans to eventually open the Conservation Center to the public, according to Rising. “They’ll still be profiting off of the elephants.”
Rising called Ringling’s announcement “a limited victory.” “It’s a step in the right direction, and it’s great that all the years of education around the issue is starting to pay off.”