RIngling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus will close its final circuses in May of this year. Of particular interest to this site, circus ownership cites animal rights activists and the loss of elephants from its shows as some of the (many) causes for its decline in popularity and profitability. The company will continue to operate the Center for Elephant Conservation (at least for the time being). A nostalgic part of me will always look back on the circus with fond recollection of long-ago family outings (and one very late return to boarding school because of getting caught behind a caravan of vehicles moving circus stuff from the train to the long-defunct Richfield Coliseum) but recognition of its many problems. I don't think I could watch a traditional circus featuring any exotic animals any longer, but I have fewer problems with domestic animal acts (and certainly all human acts are fair game) - and it's always hard to hear of so many losing their (often highly specialized) jobs. Ringling Bros. circus to close after 146 years
I was just about to post this article when I saw you posted it. Not surprising really and I am not sad about it, except of course that people will lose jobs. About two years ago they (Ringling) came to my city and an old friend of mine happened to be working on their stage crew. I did not see the show (not sure I would want to), but it was near me in downtown and I met up with my friend afterwards. He gave me a tour of the setup including the animal's sleeping quarters inside the convention center, and it was depressing. Tigers in rolling cages and elephants chained on the cement floor (with hay strewn about) and makeshift hotwire around them. Each elephant was kept separate (though adjacent) from the next. It is interesting to see they will keep operating their Florida elephant center. Are enough facilities still buying Asian elephants to make this profitable?
Most ZooChatters will also notice the author of the article mistakenly identifies Jumbo as an Asian elephant, when of course he was an African elephant.
Perhaps if the company becomes unable to keep the facility operating in the future, some AZA zoos can band together and take ownership of it?
The AZA already tried banding together to create an elephant facility in Florida. Sadly it only lasted a couple years and has already been shut down.
Majority of the Ringling elephants will be moving to another facility in Florida within a year or two.
It's so interesting to read this about their living conditions. It's not too much of a surprise, but over on facebook I've been seeing many zookeepers upset about this closure saying that the animals were all spoiled to death. Perhaps they are, I guess they never did mentioned the living conditions. However, along with the zookeepers, I do feel bad for all the people losing their jobs.
