PETA Statement, re: Ringling Bros.’ Reported Plan to Retire Elephants by 2018

For Immediate Release:
March 5, 2015

For 35 years PETA has protested Ringling Bros.’ cruelty to elephants. PETA also caught Ringling’s abuse on video and released photos of its violent baby elephant training to the world. We know extreme abuse to these majestic animals occurs every single day, so if Ringling is really telling the truth about ending this horror, it will be a day to pop the champagne corks, and rejoice. However, many of the elephants are painfully arthritic, and many have tuberculosis, so their retirement day needs to come now. Three years is too long for a mother elephant separated from her calf, too long for a baby elephant beaten with the sharp fireplace-poker like weapons called bullhooks that Ringling handlers use routinely, too long for an animal who roams up to 30 miles a day in the wild to be kept in shackles. If the decision is serious, then the circus needs to do it NOW.

–Attributed to Delcianna Winders, Deputy General Counsel, Captive Animal Law Enforcement, PETA Foundation