Ringling Brothers elephants perform in their final show

Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus elephants.
(Image credit: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images)

On Sunday in Providence, Rhode Island, the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus held its final performance with elephants.

Animal rights groups have been calling on the circus to discontinue the act for years, and originally, the elephants were going to be retired in 2018. "It's an end of an era that should have ended a long, long time ago," Elinor Molgebott with the Humane Society of New York told CBS News. "This is so unnatural for them. They shouldn't be subject to abuse."

Now, 11 elephants will be retired to Florida, where they will live at a 200-acre conservation center run by the owner of Ringling Brothers. The circus company has used elephants for the last 145 years, and said it will continue to showcase lions, tigers, horses, and kangaroos in animal acts. "It is a bittersweet decision, there is no question about that, but it is the best thing," said Kenneth Feld, chairman of the parent company who owns Ringling Brothers. "And we felt this was the right time to do it." More than 12 circuses continue to tour with elephants.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.