The Ringling Bros. circus is shutting down after 146 years
A circus without elephants might be more humane, but apparently it's far less enticing.
The owners of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus said they will permanently end their 146-year-old show this spring. "The Greatest Show on Earth" saw a steep decline in ticket sales after removing elephants from performances in May 2016.
"After much evaluation and deliberation, my family and I have made the difficult business decision that Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey will hold its final performances in May of this year," Kenneth Feld, chairman and CEO of Feld Entertainment, said in a Jan. 13 statement.
"Ticket sales have been declining, but following the transition of the elephants off the road, we saw an even more dramatic drop," Feld added. "This, coupled with high operating costs, made the circus an unsustainable business for the company."
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The company broke the news to hundreds of employees on Saturday night after shows in Orlando and Miami.
The long-running circus has its roots in a spectacle that started two decades before the U.S. Civil War. Then a combination of freak show, zoo and museum, the event became a traveling road show in 1881. A year later, P.T. Barnum brought an Asian elephant named Jumbo to the United States.
The circus evolved over the decades into the flashing, fiery circus that many generations grew up watching. Throughout the years, elephants remained the show's staple.
But competition for children's attention has only intensified since the mid-20th century. For many kids, the appeal of a live circus -- even with its death-defying acrobats -- steadily dwindled as movies, TV shows, video games and the internet proliferated.
The broader public has also grown disenchanted with the idea of exotic animals as living performance pieces. (See also: SeaWorld's own dramatic downfall.)
Animal rights groups for decades targeted Ringling Bros., arguing that forcing elephants, tigers, lions and other animals to perform is cruel and unnecessary. A year-long investigation by Mother Jones revealed that Ringling circus elephants spent most of their lives chained up and under constant threat of bullhooks, the tools used to control elephants.
The circus found itself in a paradoxical position.
In May last year, following a long and costly legal battle, Ringling Bros. took elephants out of its shows and sent the animals to live on a conservation farm in central Florida. But then circus-goers -- many of whom said they didn't want big animals to perform -- stopped showing up.
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"We know now that one of the major reasons people came to Ringling Bros. was getting to see elephants," Juliette Feld, the company's chief operating officer and Kenneth Feld's daughter, told the Associated Press.
"We stand by that decision," she added. "We know it was the right decision. This was what audiences wanted to see and it definitely played a major role."
Feld Entertainment said the circus's existing animals -- including lions, tigers, camels, donkeys, alpacas, kangaroos and llamas -- will go to suitable homes following the show's final performance on May 21.
Associated Press contributed reporting.
Maria Gallucci was a Science Reporter at Mashable. She was previously the energy and environment reporter at International Business Times; features editor of Makeshift magazine; clean economy reporter for InsideClimate News; and a correspondent in Mexico City until 2011. Maria holds degrees in journalism and Spanish from Ohio University's Honors Tutorial College.
