Visit the sanctuary where Ringling Bros. elephants retire

POLK CITY, Fla.- The final curtain call is approaching for the famous Ringling Bros. elephants.

All of the elephants will be phased out of the show by 2018. But where do these special stars go to retire?

The Ringling Bros. Center for Elephant Conservation sits on about 200 acres of land in rural Polk City.

That is where some of the elephants from Ringling’s traveling circus get to kick back and enjoy a slower pace.

“We started with somewhere in the neighborhood of maybe eight or nine elephants,” said chairman Kenneth Feld.

Twenty-years after Feld opened the center’s doors, some 29 elephants call this place home.

“They’re an endangered species, Asian elephants and they were always the symbol of Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey, and we knew that if we didn’t do something, maybe my grandchildren would never have the opportunity to see these incredible animals,” said Feld.

By 2018, 13 more will join the group after Ringling Bros., owned by Feld’s company, decided to phase out the animals from their shows.

The move comes after years of repeated criticism and lawsuits by animal rights groups.

But Feld says the change is the result of the different laws regulating the use of elephants in each of the 115 cities the circus visits every year.

“You can’t operate any business, much less with animals, if you don’t have consistency from city to city. It’s a definite expense to be in litigation and to be fighting legislation and, you know, there is a saying and it’s been around for a long time, ‘you can’t fight city hall,’ and we found that to be the case in this situation,” said Feld.