Ringling Bros. to stop using elephants—in 2018

Yesterday Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus announced it would stop using elephants in its shows. I strongly oppose using megafauna in circuses. Performing elephants are systematically abused their entire lives, so I applaud this announcement, even though it’s much murkier than it should be.

For one thing, the official press release flirts with disingenuous. Excerpt:

“As the circus evolves, we can maintain our focus on elephant conservation while allowing our business to continue to meet shifting consumer preferences.”

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey has long maintained that it has a deep interest in the welfare of the Asian elephant as a species, and that’s the stated purpose of the Ringling Bros. Center for Elephant Conservation. (The actual purpose is that it has been an elephant farm, used to supply the circus with elephants after it became illegal to take them from the wild.) They claim to want to turn this facility into something open to the public, which will get considerably easier once the abhorrent training methods are no longer necessary. We shall see.

(And I guess “shifting consumer preferences” is about as close as we’re going to get to “too many people are repulsed by how performing elephants are treated and it’s hurting the bottom line.”)

Why 2018? Why so long? I understand that this is a decision with a significant business impact, but that seems an awfully long time to sort out how things will go.

Ringling Bros., though it’s obviously being taken begrudgingly, this is a step. Thank you. Make it happen. I’m hopeful that as you implement this change, your rhetoric will begin tacking more toward honesty.

And let’s talk big cats next.

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2 thoughts on “Ringling Bros. to stop using elephants—in 2018”

  1. I think Cirque du Soleil exemplifies what a modern “circus show” should be. It’s entirely made up of humans who are obviously somewhat willing, at the very least, and incredibly talented. For what they lack in exotic animals, they make it up with amazingly creative acrobatics and stunts in very well produced and artistic fashion.

    I’d hope to see a big brand like Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus reinvent themselves to be something modern that’s worthy of competing with Cirque du Soleil.

    At the very least, be better than Cirque Dreams, which isn’t that high of a bar (some pun intended).

    Reply
    • I doubt there’s any coercion whatsoever with Cirque de Soleil performers, and I further suspect they make a good living.

      I argued for a while in the comments of this article. I sympathize with what I heard–tradition, Americana, and so forth–but the bottom line is that I’ve not met anyone yet who honestly examines the hell that is the life of a circus elephant and walks away still fine with the concept.

      We need to be better than this, just like we’re now better than packing circus train cars with people who have defects and deformities, shipping them all over the country, and charging admission to see them. There are more important things than tradition.

      Reply

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