Ringling Bros. to stop using Asian elephants in the circus

Circus says it is taking this step to conserve the Asian elephant

(Getty Images)

Ringling Bros., the famous circus company, has revealed that it will be removing Asian elephants from its act in an effort to help protect an endangered species.

Feld Entertainment, parent company of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus, said Thursday that it would begin phasing out elephants and said the fan favourites would no longer be in any shows by 2018.

“This is the most significant change we have made since we founded the Ringling Bros. Center for Elephant Conservation in 1995,” Kenneth Feld, CEO of Feld Entertainment said in a statement. “When we did so, we knew we would play a critical role in saving the endangered Asian elephant for future generations, given how few Asian elephants are left in the wild.”

Ringling Bros. circus has 13 elephants traveling with three different acts and plans to place those elephants at the conservation centre in Florida by 2018. The conservation centre is home to more than 40 elephants, the company said.

The World Wildlife Foundation classifies the Asian elephant as endangered and estimates that between 20,000 and 25,000 Asian elephants remain on Earth.

Calls to the company were not returned in time for this story.

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