How Liberals Killed the Circus

The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus has been an American institution for nearly 150 years, surviving two World Wars, the Great Depression, and a dramatically changing entertainment landscape, yet it couldn't survive modern liberalism.

Officially founded in 1919 when the Ringling Brothers Circus formally merged with the Barnum & Bailey Greatest Show on Earth that it had purchased in 1907, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus became phenomenally popular in the 1920s, but the Depression threatened to put it out of business.

It managed to survive, though, but by the 1950s it faced an even more pressing threat--television.  Once Americans could have hours of entertainment beamed into their living rooms, they no longer needed to head to the big top.

In fact, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey abandoned the big top altogether in 1956, leaving tent performances for indoor arenas and, as Life Magazine put it at the time, signifying the point when "a magical era had passed forever."

While that was undoubtedly true and television had forever supplanted the circus, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey stayed afloat for decades by taking itself public, forming two national touring companies and an international tour, and even building an ill-fated Circus World amusement park near Walt Disney World.   

The 1990s brought even more competition for circuses with the advent of the internet, and although Canada's more artistic Cirque du Soleil became very successful in the United States by catering to a higher-end crowd, traditional circuses like Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey continued to struggle.

Still, though, it survived--until it faced the enemy that would ultimately destroy it: Activist liberalism.

Elephants had been a part of circus performances for more than 100 years--ever since P.T. Barnum purchased and began exhibiting a large African Bush Elephant he named Jumbo in 1881.

Jumbo was an instant hit, and Barnum added more elephants to his shows and had trainers teach them tricks to create ever more elaborate performances.  The elephants were so popular that they became the symbol of Barnum's circus and synonymous with circus performances in general.

After Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey was purchased by Irvin Feld in 1968, his company, Feld Entertainment, made elephant (and all performing animal) care a top priority.  The circus employed a full-time veterinary staff and made sure that at least one vet accompanied the animals on each tour.

This wasn't just humane; it was also a commonsense business practice, as the animals represented a significant investment and were a vital part of each performance.

Each animal saw not just a vet for basic care, but also trained, professional handlers who didn't just work with them; they loved them. 

The elephants in particular were a focus of concern, and in 1995, the company founded the Center for Elephant Conservation--a 200-acre preserve in Polk City, Florida.  It serves as a retirement home for elderly circus elephants, a breeding compound to help maintain the population of an endangered species, and a research facility.  

For more than 20 years, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey has brought other endangered species used in its performances to the sanctuary in an effort to stabilize their populations as well.

More common performing animals such as dogs and cats were routinely saved from death at animal shelters and trained to do tricks in various shows, yet by the late 1990s, radical left-wing animal activists began targeting the circus.

Despite the fact that to this day, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey has never once been found to be in violation of the Animal Welfare Act (despite near-constant inspections), these activists nonetheless seized on an elephant's death in 1998 as evidence of widespread animal abuse.

Kenny, a 3 year-old Asian Elephant, died of unknown causes following a performance.  Animal rights activists were outraged and demanded an investigation.  Actress Kim Basinger started a letter-writing campaign and, in response, the Clinton Administration's Department of Agriculture brought two charges of violating the Animal Cruelty Act against Feld Entertainment.

However, upon investigating the death, it became apparent that there was not enough evidence to secure a conviction, so the Agriculture Department reached a settlement: Feld would donate $20,000 to elephant causes in exchange for the federal government absolving the company of all blame for Kenny's death.

Since then, there has not been a single shred of evidence that the circus was in fact responsible for Kenny's death, but the case was a turning point in the left's war against Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey.  Instead of seeking regulatory relief from the federal bureaucracy, activists began trying to find sympathetic federal judges to battle the circus in court.

At the same time, the rise of the internet and social media allowed organizations like the Humane Society, PETA, and the ASPCA to wage a public relations campaign against Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey that played to both the public's sympathies and lack of knowledge about animal handling techniques.  

Many of the claims about circus handlers' treatment of elephants focused on their use of a "bullhook," a tool used to guide the animals' movements.  Activists claimed that the bullhook is used to intentionally inflict pain upon the animal so as to punish it for, say, incorrectly performing a trick, but the American Veterinary Medical Association, the American Humane Association, and the Elephant Managers Association all determined that a bullhook was not only proper to use for working with elephants, it is often vital for the safety of both trainer and elephant alike.

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