After years of protests from the Humane Society and other animal activists, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus are retiring their elephants.
According to the Associated Press, the gentle giants delivered their final performance on the evening of May 1, 2016 in Providence, Rhode Island. Johnathan Lee Iverson, the circus’s ringmaster, “closed [the show]…by calling the animals beloved members of the circus family and thanking them for more than 100 years of service.”