Ringling Elephants Head For Early Retirement In Florida As Key Subjects For Cancer Research

March 5, 2015 was a good news day for elephants on our GLAMTRIBALE blog. Executives from Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey circus announced an end to its use of circus elephants by 2018. 

In the same post, Prince William was in China as the first high-ranking royal to visit the country in 30 years. The Duke of Cambridge continued to press China to end its obsession with ivory and the elephant poaching that supports the deadly habit. (Note that the US follows China in a thirst for illegal ivory.)

Early Retirement for Ringling's Elephant Parade

In a bit of wonderful news for elephants, Ringling announced yesterday that it will retire its elephants in May 2015. On May 1, two years ahead of schedule, 11 female elephants who have spent decades on the road entertaining increasingly concerned and empathetic audiences will perform for the last time in Wilkes Barre, Pa. 

The Humane Society’s president, Wayne Pacelle, praised it on his blog as “a second wave of good news” from Ringling. “For wild animals whose natural habitat is outdoors, life in a traveling show is filled with unending misery …  all so they can perform silly tricks.”

Arriving at the Center for Elephant Conservation in May, while the scrubby palmetto are blooming white, will be elephants ranging in age from 5 to 47. The youngest, April, after a year on the road, will be returning to her mother, Alana (named for the middle daughter of company owner Kenneth Feld), and to her father, Charlie, a seasoned stud whose latest mate is pregnant and due in September.

“You could say it’s not a retirement” for most of the performers, said Payne, “but a family reunion. And it might be a good excuse for a party.”

In addition to the merriment of finally hanging out together as one big happy family, the Ringling conservation center will mate its Asian elephants in order to grow its herd. Even more important, researchers will be studying the rare occurrence of cancer in elephants. National Geographic reports: 

Elephants for Cancer Research

Studies published in October say elephant DNA holds 20 copies of p53, an important tumor-suppressing gene, compared to only one in the DNA of humans and other mammals. 

GLAMTRIBALE is devoted to elephant conservation and girls in Kenya, splitting 10% of every GLAMTRIBALE sale between Kenya's The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust : A Haven for Elephants and The Kibera School for Girls. 

Elephant lovers embrace GLAMTRIBALE's special collections using elephant charms and our featherweight decoupage wood beads. Many designs use unique woolly mammoth bone beads,  buried from 10,000 to 100,000 years. Woolly mammoth ivory -- not presently sold by us --  is promoted as an alternative to ivory. Note that there is growing concerns that ivory hunters are now fanning out over Siberia in a new gold rush, digging up long-buried mammoths. 

Take a look at our precious jewelry tribute to elephants. Our Home collection will debut online Feb. 15, 2016.