--- title: Know Right Now: Ringling Bros. Circus Eliminating Elephant Acts description: Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus announced Thursday it would eliminate its iconic elephant acts by 2018. Watch today's #KnowRightNow, and click here for... canonical: https://time.com/3733791/know-right-now-ringling-elephants/ author: Julia Lull article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-03-05T18:06:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T04:56:57.305Z article:section: U.S. og:title: Know Right Now: Ringling Bros. Eliminating Elephant Acts og:description: Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus announced Thursday it would eliminate its iconic elephant acts by 2018. Watch today's #KnowRightNow, and click here for... og:url: https://time.com/3733791/know-right-now-ringling-elephants/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte2c26e4f5080bb72/6987824d8e060126ae45aa37/wp1.jpg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: wp1.jpg og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Know Right Now: Ringling Bros. Eliminating Elephant Acts twitter:description: Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus announced Thursday it would eliminate its iconic elephant acts by 2018. Watch today's #KnowRightNow, and click here for... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte2c26e4f5080bb72/6987824d8e060126ae45aa37/wp1.jpg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Know Right Now: Ringling Bros Circuses Drop Elephant Acts  by [Julia Lull](/author/julia-lull/)  ## Julia Lull Mar 5, 2015 6:06 PM CUT   by [Julia Lull](/author/julia-lull/)  ## Julia Lull Mar 5, 2015 6:06 PM CUT Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus announced Thursday it would eliminate its iconic elephant acts by 2018. Watch today’s #KnowRightNow, and [click here](http://time.com/3733447/elephants-animal-cruelty-abuse-circus/ "undefined") for more on this story. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3733791/know-right-now-ringling-elephants/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3733791/know-right-now-ringling-elephants/"},"headline":"Know Right Now: Ringling Bros Circuses Drop Elephant Acts","datePublished":"2015-03-05T18:06:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T04:56:57.305Z","description":"Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus announced Thursday it would eliminate its iconic elephant acts by 2018. Watch today's #KnowRightNow, and click here for...","url":"https://time.com/3733791/know-right-now-ringling-elephants/","keywords":["Know Right Now","Elephants","circus"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte2c26e4f5080bb72/6987824d8e060126ae45aa37/wp1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Julia Lull","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/julia-lull/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte2c26e4f5080bb72/6987824d8e060126ae45aa37/wp1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"wp1.jpg","caption":"","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/know-right-now/","name":"Know Right Now"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3733791/know-right-now-ringling-elephants/","name":"Know Right Now: Ringling Bros Circuses Drop Elephant Acts"}}]}] ```