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After 146 Years, Ringling Bros. Circus To Close ‘Greatest Show On Earth’ In May — Animal Rights Activists Major Reason For End

By Janice Malcolm
Published on: 17:36 PST, Jan 14, 2017

It’s about to be curtains for “The Greatest Show on Earth” as the owner of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus told the Associated Press on Saturday that in May, the show will come to an end, forever, after 146 years in operation

Kenneth Feld, the chairman and CEO of Feld Entertainment, which actually owns the circus, said that a combination of declining attendance and high operating costs greatly contributed to the reasons for the closing of one of the world’s biggest big tops. Of course there are other factors which caused the iconic American spectacle to be closing down, such as the prolonged battles the circus has had with animal rights activists brought on by changing public attitudes and tastes.

“There isn’t any one thing. This has been a very difficult decision for me and for the entire family.”

News of the impending closure was broken to the circus employees on Saturday night following shows in Miami and Orlando.

This season, the Ringling Bros. have two touring circuses, “Circus Extreme” and “Out of This World,” in operation with 30 shows scheduled between now and its impending closure in May. Most of the shows over the next four months will take place in the South or on the East Coast and several major stops along the way include Atlanta, Boston, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, and Washington. The final show the “Circus Extreme” will perform in Providence, Rhode Island, on May 7, while the second tour will close after its performance in Uniondale, New York, at the Nassau County Coliseum on May 21. Tickets are available for purchase online as well as at the venues.

Approximately 500 people are employed by the Feld family to operate the circus, which they have owned for 49 years. ABC affiliate KSAT 12 reported that a handful of these workers will be moved to positions at several other shows the company owns, such as Monster Jam, Disney on Ice, and Marvel Live, among others, though most of the employees will become unemployed. The company has also stated that it will assist those employees who live in the train cars — as the circus travels by rail — by locating new housing accommodations.

The exotic animals, death-defying acrobats, and flashy costumes that the Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus is known for got its start in a spectacle which began two decades before the U.S. Civil War. Originally operating as equal parts freak show, zoo, and museum, they also showcased artifacts and items from around the world. The once staple of United States entertainment did not officially became a circus until 1881 and has evolved numerous times since then. The traveling spectacle of animals and human oddities was made famous by Phineas Taylor Barnum while the five Ringling brothers were known to perform juggling acts and skits from their Wisconsin home base. Their eventual merger was the birth of the modern circus.

In 1967, the Feld family acquired the Ringling Bros. circus in a ceremony that was held at the Rome Colosseum.

Feld and his daughter Juliette Feld, the company’s chief operating officer, acknowledged that one of the major contributing factors to the closing of the Ringling Bros. circus is something that initially drew millions of people to the show – the animals. Activists arguing that it is cruel and unnecessary to force animals to perform in the show have targeted Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus and led to the removal of a symbol the company had been known for since 1882: the elephants. The company made the decision in May 2016, after an exhaustive and costly legal battle, to remove the elephants from their shows entirely and send them to live on a conservation farm in Central Florida.

By this time many cities forbade the use of bull-hooks by elephant trainers and handlers while others prohibited wild or exotic animals from performing. Though attendance had been waning for the last 10 years, Juliette Feld said that once the elephants were gone there was a “dramatic drop” in ticket sales. The other animals that the circus uses to perform include lions, tigers, alpacas, camels, donkeys, kangaroos, and llamas, and Feld has stated that new homes will be found for these animals.

The company stated that even after the closing of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, it will continue to operate the Center for Elephant Conservation.

[Featured Image by Chris O’Meara/AP Images]

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