Elephants last day in Ringling Bros. Circus

Sunday, May 1, 2016 was supposed to be the last day to see elephants performing in the Ringling Bros. Circus acts.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/ ... 1-09-42-43

Although you may still be able to see elephants in some other smaller circuses while they still have them.

Will you miss seeing the elephants in the circus, or do you think it is a good thing to take them out of the circus?

One thing disturbs me and that is the reference to using the elephants in cancer research. I don't know what that exactly means. While it may be important and necessary to do so, I only hope it can be done without harming the elephants in any way, or something.

Oh well, I for one will miss seeing the elephants. I remember going to the circus and it was always exciting to see these huge animals. Although there are zoos around to possible see them now also.

I am for this. Circuses and other such performing acts are often very cruel to their show animals, and elephants are not an exception. We've also learned a LOT about elephants in recent years, and they are deeply intelligent, emotional and self-aware animals. Zoos, especially recently, have been getting far better about how they treat their animals and they have educational value that circuses do not, as well as promoting environmental awareness of the world beyond humans. There is no reason for elephants to be forced to participate in circuses and other shows.

As far as cancer research goes, it is probably testing treatments with them, as they may respond similarly physiologically to humans to certain things. To me, that is a thornier issue than circuses, as medical research is very important and a crucial part of it is animal testing when they respond like humans do, but it also has ethical issues that I do understand and sympathize with. But I find medical research to be far more important in the grand scheme of things than circuses, which is why for me personally, I still don't know where I stand on that.