--- title: Ringling Bros., Barnum & Bailey: Why Circuses Are Dropping Elephants description: The social nature of elephants makes captivity for them a "living death" canonical: https://time.com/3733447/elephants-animal-cruelty-abuse-circus/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-03-05T16:32:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T04:56:30.631Z article:section: Science og:title: Why This Big Circus Is Dropping Elephants From Its Acts og:description: The social nature of elephants makes captivity for them a "living death" og:url: https://time.com/3733447/elephants-animal-cruelty-abuse-circus/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4b2fb4f996429df4/6987824de53aba4e324d7eb7/ringling-elephant-circus.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3754 og:image:height: 2112 og:image:alt: Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why This Big Circus Is Dropping Elephants From Its Acts twitter:description: The social nature of elephants makes captivity for them a "living death" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4b2fb4f996429df4/6987824de53aba4e324d7eb7/ringling-elephant-circus.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Why the Circus Is Saying Goodbye to Elephants > Sponsored content. 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It reaches 40,000 subscribers with a 34.2% open rate and a 2.1% click rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I follow the energy transition as a business story? Future Proof covers climate and energy as an economic and business story rather than only an environmental one. It publishes every Friday and is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who writes Future Proof? Justin Worland, a senior correspondent at TIME and an award-winning climate journalist, writes Future Proof. #### Is Future Proof free? Yes. Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Mar 5, 2015 4:32 PM UTC  Elephants perform at the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus at the Amalie Arena in Tampa on Jan. 3, 2015. Elephants perform at the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus at the Amalie Arena in Tampa on Jan. 3, 2015.Gary Bogdon—AP  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Mar 5, 2015 4:32 PM UTC On Thursday, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus [announced they would phase out their iconic elephant acts](http://time.com/3733271/ringling-circus-end-elephant-acts/) by 2018\. The decision was spurred by public concern about the treatment of elephants in circuses, and perhaps a growing understanding that being kept as an entertainment spectacle is emotionally damaging to the sensitive, intelligent animals. Elephants are social creatures in the wild with close-knit family units. They even perform funeral rituals and spend weeks mourning their dead. So those that have long been in circuses and zoos can come to exhibit symptoms of depression, aggression or post-traumatic stress disorder, most likely as a result of the confinement and isolation. In 2006, the New York _Times_ article [described](http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/08/magazine/08elephant.html?pagewanted=all&%5Fr=0) the trauma elephants undergo in captivity: “Being kept in relative confinement and isolation \[is\] a kind of living death for an animal as socially developed and dependent as we now know elephants to be,” author Charles Siebert wrote. There have been many reports of elephants in captivity experiencing abuse by their handlers. In 2011, _Mother Jones_ published a year-long [investigation](http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2011/10/ringling-bros-elephant-abuse) into Ringling Bros.’ treatment of its elephants. Among its claims: --- > “” --- Feld Entertainment, owner of Ringling Bros, said that its elephants were in fact “pampered performers” who “are trained through positive reinforcement, a system of repetition and reward that encourages an animal to show off its innate athletic abilities.” But apparently Ringling is slowly coming to understand that keeping elephants in bondage, animals with a highly developed emotional intelligence, places an uncomfortable mirror on humanity. The New York _Times_ [article](http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/08/magazine/08elephant.html?pagewanted=all&%5Fr=0) describes a former circus elephant who had turned violent: “She and the others have suffered, we now understand, not simply because of us, but because they are, by and large, us.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3733447/elephants-animal-cruelty-abuse-circus/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3733447/elephants-animal-cruelty-abuse-circus/"},"headline":"Why the Circus Is Saying Goodbye to Elephants","datePublished":"2015-03-05T16:32:37.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T04:56:30.631Z","description":"The social nature of elephants makes captivity for them a \"living death\"","url":"https://time.com/3733447/elephants-animal-cruelty-abuse-circus/","keywords":["animals"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4b2fb4f996429df4/6987824de53aba4e324d7eb7/ringling-elephant-circus.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4b2fb4f996429df4/6987824de53aba4e324d7eb7/ringling-elephant-circus.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus","caption":"Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus","creditText":"Gary Bogdon—AP","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/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/animals/","name":"animals"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3733447/elephants-animal-cruelty-abuse-circus/","name":"Why the Circus Is Saying Goodbye to Elephants"}}]}] ```