Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus announced it will host its final show in May, ending "The Greatest Show on Earth" after 146 years. Company executives cited high operating costs and declining ticket sales after the American circus retired its elephants -- a main draw -- as some of the factors that triggered its downfall. The final "Circus XTREME" show will take place at the Dunkin' Donuts Center in Providence, Rhode Island on May 7, while the group's "Out Of This World" tour will take place May 21 at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, New York.
In May 2015, the circus retired its performing elephants after major criticism from animal rights groups, including widely circulated videos from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals that showed a male handler hitting elephants with an ankus, or pointed stick.
The Ringling Brothers herd was the largest in the western hemisphere for Asian elephants, listed as an endangered species by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, which says 40,000-50,000 exist in the world in highly fragmented populations.
