Circus to end Elephant Acts

[Catherine]

After more than a century, the Ringling Bros. Circus is ending its elephant acts and retiring its eleven working elephants.
They had planned to phase out the elephants by 2018, but now they will all be retired this year.

The elephants will be moved to the company’s 200-acre Center for Elephant Conservation, located between Orlando and Tampa, Florida.


http://news.google.ca/news/url?sr=1&ct2=...t=2&at=dt0

There is no doubt that pressure from animal rights groups has influenced their decision, particularly the move to retire the elephants right away.

This is a major victory for performing elephants everywhere. If a group with this long an elephant show tradition can do the right thing, then there is no reason for anybody to keep using elephants in shows.
Dancing on head

Dare we hope that this will put pressure on groups with performing whales.