Ringling Circus Elephants Take Early Retirement to Florida

For more than a century, the elephant has been a symbol of the traveling circus, despite complaints that the animals were treated cruelly. Now the days of their lumbering performances under big-top tents are coming to an end sooner than planned.

The parent company of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus said in a statement on Monday that it was phasing out its Asian elephants show early and would move the creatures from their traveling circus units to a conservation center in Florida in May.

The move would bring to 42 the number of elephants at the center, according to Feld Entertainment, the circus’s parent company. The company estimates that it costs $65,000 apiece to maintain each of the 11 elephants remaining on tour every year, and it says it wants to use that money to focus on conservation and pediatric cancer research instead, according to the statement.

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