Ringling elephants take final bow

NEW YORK — Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus elephants performed for the last time Sunday, ending a 145-year spectacle that delighted fans but enraged animal activists, who say the retirement is not enough.

The last 11 elephants touring with 'The Greatest Show on Earth' leave behind their enormous studded tiaras and begin traveling Monday to Ringling's 200-acre Center for Elephant Conservation in central Florida, said Stephen Payne, spokesman for the circus' parent company, Feld Entertainment.

Bonnie, Juliette and nine other female Asian elephants retired earlier than originally planned, reflecting shifting U.S. attitudes toward animal entertainment.

SeaWorld Entertainment Inc. is phasing out killer whale shows at its amusement parks, halting the breeding of orcas in captivity as of last month and replacing the extravaganzas with what it terms educational encounters by 2019.

But the United States has a long way to go, say animal activist groups, including People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the International Fund for Animal Welfare and The Elephant Sanctuary.

Though elephants no longer will perform for Ringling, 69 elephants still will be in the possession of smaller U.S. circuses and traveling acts.

Other wild animals continue as circus headliners, including at Ringling Bros., which tours with 28 tigers, six lions, one leopard, two kangaroos and three pythons, Payne said.

At least 17 countries have outlawed circus acts featuring wild animals, but the practice remains largely legal in the United States. Hawaii is poised to be the first state to ban them, and more than a dozen municipalities have enacted prohibitions.

Advocates criticize retirement center

While glad that the Ringling elephants are leaving their traveling days behind, animal activists are critical of the company's Polk City, Fla., facility that will be their retirement home.

'(It's) nothing more than a breeding facility, where elephants are chained for approximately 16 hours a day or more in concrete-floored barns and still beaten with bullhooks,' said PETA spokeswoman Katie Arth. 'When they're allowed outside, they're confined to small, virtually barren paddocks.'

Payne brushed off the criticism as an effort by 'animal rights extremists to score cheap publicity' and accused PETA of lacking firsthand knowledge of what it takes to care for an Asian elephant.

The center focuses on conservation, breeding and research, including studies to determine why elephants face a lower risk of cancer than humans despite their far greater body mass, the center's website says.

A Reuters reporter who toured the camp in October saw dozens of elephants corralled in groups of twos and threes in areas about the size of suburban backyards that gave them enough room to walk around. At night they stay in large barns, with their feet often chained to keep them from stealing each other's food.

'Free-range sanctuaries that are as large as possible are a much better option,' said Katie Moore, animal rescue program director with the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

Ringling Bros. said elephants will eat high-quality hay and local produce, go on occasional walks and possibly pull old tricks. 'Elephants actually do stand on their heads in the wild. I've seen it,' Payne said.

IFAW, PETA and The Elephant Sanctuary said it is more likely the elephants, which can weigh about 6,000 pounds, never again will perform that circus shtick unless they are forced to do so.

'That is the most ridiculous thing I have heard in 30 years of knowing elephants in the wild,' said Vivek Menon, senior adviser to the IFAW.