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News > World

Animal Rights Groups Win, 'Greatest Show on Earth' To Shut Down

  • In May 2015 Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus retired its performing elephants after major criticism from animal rights groups.

    In May 2015 Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus retired its performing elephants after major criticism from animal rights groups. | Photo: AFP

Published 15 January 2017
Opinion

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus is shutting down in May after a long fight by animal rights groups against using endangered elephants.

Animal rights advocates cheered the decision by Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus Saturday announcing that it will host its final show in May, ending "The Greatest Show on Earth" after 146 years.

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Company executives cited high operating costs and declining ticket sales after the traveling U.S. circus retired its elephant act, citing that as one of the reasons for drawing the curtain on a celebrated spectacle that traces its origins to politician and showman P.T. Barnum's first show in 1871.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals cheered Ringling's latest decision as the end of an era and called for other circuses to follow their lead.

"After 36 years of PETA protests, which have awoken the world to the plight of animals in captivity, PETA heralds the end of what has been the saddest show on Earth for wild animals, and asks all other animal circuses to follow suit, as this is a sign of changing times," the group's president Ingrid Newkirk said in a statement.

Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States, echoed the same sentiment. "A major moment as big brands that harm animals fade away and more humane businesses emerge I applaud @RinglingBros announcement," he tweeted.

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In May 2015, the circus retired its performing elephants after major criticism from animal rights groups, including widely circulated videos from PETA that showed a male handler hitting elephants with a pointed stick.

The Ringling Brothers herd was the largest of Asian elephants in the Western hemisphere, listed as an endangered species by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, which says 40,000-50,000 exist in the world in highly fragmented populations.

Kenneth Feld, chairman and CEO of the show's producer Feld Entertainment, said he and his family came to the "difficult" decision to end the circus "after much evaluation and deliberation." The group has a total of 30 stops scheduled on its 2017 tour.

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