Circus Closes… For Good

PHOTO CREDIT:  Ringling Bros. & Barnum Bailey Circus

RINGLING BROS. AND BARNUM & BAILEY CIRCUS has sent a second thunderbolt in the span of two years – a little more than a flash of time in the company’s 146-year history, but as dramatic and sensational as one could imagine. Last month, Ringling announced to the Associated Press that it was shuttering its entire business and brand come May.

The company’s prior announcement, in March 2015, that it was ending its use of elephants and traveling acts had been remarkable, but this was historic. The biggest brand in exotic animal acts announced that there’s no viable future in that line of work. The parent company has monster trucks, ice skating, and other forms of spectator entertainment that are generating profits and drawing crowds. Those forms remain viable, but not elephants doing head stands and tigers and lions jumping through hoops.

The public just doesn’t go for it any longer. We now know about the social and emotional lives of these animals, and the endless deprivation for these creatures living in near constant confinement or tethered to chains. With other forms of entertainment available to the American public, why put the animals through the relentless travel, long-term confinement, and forcible training techniques? In the last few years, the dispute that there is something wrong with the mistreatment and display of wild animals penetrated the consciousness of the country and consumers simply went elsewhere. In the wake of Ringling’s first announcement, ending the use of elephants in traveling acts, California and Rhode Island adopted policies banning the use of bullhooks in handling elephants.

This second major announcement from Ringling is likely to expand the hopes of animal advocates to do away with traveling exotic animal acts everywhere. In New Jersey, Bergen and Passaic County Freeholders voted to enact a ban on traveling shows that feature performances by “wild or exotic” animals, a move that is designed to keep circuses out of county parks. Jersey City, the state’s second-most-populous city has enacted a similar ban. What is even more remarkable is the movement of a state bill which would prohibit the use of elephants in traveling animal acts.

This legislation has already passed through the full senate with overwhelming bipartisan support. These measures demonstrate that government has a complementary role to play and we applaud our local and state legislators who are taking a humane position on this issue. Closing the curtain on all animal acts is the right thing to do — both in terms of moral and economic rational. For more information, visit www.humanesociety.org.