Ringling Bros. circus
elephants farewell the stage after 145 years
Decades
of litigation, protest and mounting scrutiny from animal rights activists has
forced the circus to phase out its elephant act for good.
By KATIE
METTLERThe Washington Post
Mon.,
May 2, 2016
The
circus’s leading ladies wore nothing special for their farewell performance
Sunday — no extra bedazzle, no added flair — just the traditional blue
headdresses declaring their expiring part in “The Greatest Show on Earth.”
Through
the lush red curtain they sashayed, all six, all endangered Asian elephants,
weighing a combined 30 tons. At the command of the ringmaster, the girls
lumbered about, dancing and spinning, standing on pedestals and standing on
each other, standing on their heads.
They’d
spent the last two and a half years travelling 36,000 miles (58,000 kilometres)
on a 64-car train, performing 900 times in over 80 cities for the
world-renowned Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus. Elephants just like
them had done the same for 145 years.
Now it
was time to say goodbye.
“That’s
history right there ladies and gentlemen,” ringmaster Johnathan Lee Iverson
told a roaring crowd inside the Dunkin’ Donuts Center in Providence, R.I., the
circus’s final stop of its “Legends” show circuit.
“True
American icons,” Iverson added.
Then the
elephants sashayed one last time, back through the curtain and out of sight,
closing a popular, though deeply controversial, chapter of the famous
enterprise’s history.
Decades
of litigation, protest and mounting scrutiny from swaths of animal rights
activists, as well as a shifting public opinion toward the captivity and use of
wild animals for entertainment, forced the circus to phase out its long-running
elephant act for good. Feld Entertainment Inc., the circus’s parent company,
announced the decision in March 2015, initially planning to retire their
remaining touring elephants by 2018. But nearly a year later, the company said
their elephants would perform for the final time in May, at least 18 months
earlier than expected.
After
their performance Sunday in Rhode Island, the six female elephants joined five
others that also retired at shows in Wilkes-Barre, Penn., on a train headed
south, toward the Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Center for Elephant
Conservation in Central Florida. There, the show’s 11 remaining elephants will
join its herd of 29 to live out their days.
Researchers,
academics and conservationists study the elephants at the centre, looking for
ways to repopulate the Asian elephant, an endangered species. The centre houses
the largest herd of Asian elephants in the Western Hemisphere, according to its
website.
The
centre was established in 1995. A few years later, in 1998, a whistleblower
tipped off the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals to the death of
Kenny, a three-year-old Asian elephant travelling with the Ringling Bros.
Circus, PETA said. He performed in two shows in Jacksonville, Fla., then sat
out a third but was led into the arena to watch. He died overnight in his
stall.
After
that, PETA contacted the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which brought a
complaint against the circus, charging it with failing to handle Kenny “as
expeditiously and carefully as possible in a manner that did not cause
behavioural stress and unnecessary discomfort.” The complaint also alleged that
the handlers knew the elephant was ill and needed to see a veterinarian, but
forced it to perform anyway.
Later,
the USDA settled with Feld Entertainment, and the company agreed to donate
$20,000 (U.S.) to Asian elephant organizations, according to an investigation
by Mother Jones into the mistreatment of Ringling Bros. elephants.
More
USDA investigations followed, including a look into the death of four-year-old
elephant Benjamin, who was hit with a bullhook when he refused to exit a pond
during a recreational swim between circus performances.
The
Mother Jones investigation alleged rampant disease spread in captivity, the
separation of babies from their mothers and prolonged periods of time spent in
chains.
During a
live broadcast of the elephant’s final performance on the Ringling Bros.
website, Alana Feld, a third generation member of the Feld Entertainment
business, and the field entertainment director, said the day was a “momentous
occasion.”
And she
was quick to own the company’s decision.
“Ringling
Bros. is all about change, and we’ve been around for 145 years because we’re
constantly changing,” she said.
When
Feld Entertainment first announced they would eliminate all elephant acts from
the circus, company president Kenneth Feld told The Associated Press this was
not them folding under pressure.
“We’re
not reacting to our critics,” he said. “We’re creating the greatest resource
for the preservation of the Asian elephant.”
