POLK CITY, Fla. -- The iconic Asian elephant act will soon have its final curtain call with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. After 145 years on tour, one of the last shows involving the Ringling elephants will be at Mohegan Sun Arena near Wilkes-Barre at the end of April.
Tucked away on 200 acres of protected land outside Orlando, Florida is Ringling Brothers Center for Elephant Conservation. It's been around for 20 years. Although this working farm is not open to the public, Newswatch 16 was invited inside.
"I can't imagine a world without elephants," said Janice Aria, director of animal stewardship for Ringling Brothers Center for Elephant Conservation.
Newswatch 16 toured the grounds with Aria. She explained some of the reasons why the iconic Asian elephant act will disappear from the greatest show on earth. One of the final curtain calls for the huge animals will be in April at Mohegan Sun Arena near Wilkes-Barre.
While it's still unclear what act will replace the elephants, Ringling says pulling them off the road has a lot to do with communities banning devices called bullhooks. Handlers use them guide the huge animals along with verbal commands.
"For an animal of this magnitude, we have to have something, can't have a leash, can't have reigns. This tool is approved by the USDA and American Veterinary Association. We train our people in its proper use," Aria said.
But PETA disagrees and used undercover video as evidence.
"Certainly that was sloppy handling technique and we looked into it. And there were appropriate actions taken," Aria responded.
Ringling plans to use this conservation center in Florida to breed more Asian elephants to help the species survive. It's paid for through a portion of ticket sales from Ringling's parent company, Feld Entertainment.
Workers here say each of the 41 Asian elephants that'll live here costs around $75,000 a year to care for. That total doesn't include medical care.
Aria also pointed out that the elephants that are cared for here, including 70-year-old Mysore, would have trouble surviving if they were set free in the wild.
Ringling said there are several reasons why the elephants are being pulled off of tour this year instead of the initial plan of 2018. Those reasons include: the fact that Ringling's Center for Elephant Conservation in Polk City, Florida now has enough space and staff to accommodate those elephants that were on tour. Another factor involves devices called "bullhooks" which handlers use to guide the elephants. The bullhooks have become a target of animal rights groups. You can read a statement from both PETA (People For The Ethical Treatment of Animals) and Ringling near the bottom of this post.
Ryan had a look at just who pays for the elephants care and how much food they eat a day:
To learn more about one of the last shows on Earth with elephants in our area and to get tickets, click here.
For details on Ringling's pediatric cancer research work, head here. For a more kid-friendly video that explains the cancer study, go here.
For more information on "Skype In The Classroom" where students can go on a virtual tour of Ringling's Center for Elephant Conservation Center, head to this link.
What are PETA's thoughts on Ringling removing elephants from the circus?
FROM PETA: Ringling's decision to phase out elephant acts by 2018 was, it admits, because of a "mood shift" among the public—in other words, the public is increasingly opposed to chaining elephants for most of their lives and beating them into performing tricks.
RINGLING'S response: This is not true. It was because of anti-circus legislation. For example, the city of Los Angles recently prohibited the use of appropriate, humane and acceptable elephant husbandry tools, often called bullhooks or guides. We cannot bring our elephants to the city without these tools and we cannot leave them at the city limits. This legislation was passed over our objections and was not based on any real knowledge of how to care for elephants. To care for our elephants, and to run a business, you cannot have a patchwork quilt of varied regulations from city to city. Rather than continue to fight these, we are after all an entertainment company not in the business of constantly fighting city hall, we decided to commit those resources to expanding our elephant conservation programs and to further our partnership with pediatric cancer researcher Dr. Joshua Schiffman, who has found elephants have a very low rate of cancer and how that might be applied to people. We started the Center for Elephant Conservation 20 years ago to save this endangered species and now it might be possible that what we can learn from them might someday lead to a cure for a dreaded disease. Our customers still want to see exotic animals as a part of the circus and we plan to continue to showcase the amazing bond between our human and animal performers, just not with elephants as of May 1st of this year.