New York Today: A Goodbye to Ringling Bros.

I am glad that Ringling Bros. is closing! They beat their animals and chat Ned them to box cars when they traveled! Animals should be in the wild! Have you ever seen a elephant stand on their head in the wild?! I haven't. They are electro-shocked and beaten! What kind of treatment is that?! It is torture. Luckily, the elephants are being retired to a sanctuary!

So happy to see them go! The Ringling Brothers will no longer be exploiting and abusing animals for "entertainment" and monetary gain. This article should have focused more on the company's treatment of the animals, and should NOT have focused on the fact that some people happened to enjoy their cruel entertainment.

LIKE A CIRCUS

A master dog walker is Joe de la Blatt,

A professional type and a very cool cat.

He takes up to seven miscellaneous hounds

For a stroll that's within the old neighborhood bounds.

Joe picks up the pooches around breakfast time

And again in the evening, about the fifth chime,

Providing the exercise needed by all,

The fixed and the whole, both the small and the tall.

And of course there's another responsibility,

Namely keeping them regular a rare ability.

Now, the walks take as long as an hour and a half

So Joe's bathroom detail is a load, not a laugh,

And this is his exactly where his genius shines through,

Where his ingenuity rings solid and true.

Like the circus, where elephants jump through a hoop,

Joe's come up with his own time-saving group poop,

And the stuff is collected with nary a carp

In only a single, gigantical tarp.

His clients are grateful and eagerly gush

In noting his services, making him flush.

Bye! Good riddance! Anyone under the impression that these animals are not abused should take 5 seconds and watch the plethora of undercover footage showing the exactly opposite. Animals are not here for our entertainment. They belong in their natural habits - free of oppression and abuse. Find another outlet for a fleeting moment of entertainment, and spare these animals a lifetime of abuse.

Good riddance! Thank you PETA and HSUS.

I hope factory farms will be next.

My kids don't want to see Cirque du Soleil - for them, it's boring. I have kids, so I don't' have to imagine what they want to see. I am tired of PETA and political correctness telling me what I want or don't want. My kids tastes did not change, they want to see the elephants, as well as tigers and clowns. I am tired of people who don't have kids, who don't live the life I live, dictating to me how I or my family should live.......I and my kids don't tell them what to like or not like or how they should live. So we are going to defend ourselves and keep fighting back, the American way, the right way, by voting along with the huge population of silent, non-shrill, non-histerical people out there who are tired of being told that rule of law is wrong, we can't think for oureselves, the main stream media is politically correct, etc.

Cirque du Soleil is obviously profitable with nary an animal in sight. It wasn't the demise of the elephant acts that caused Ringling Brothers go out of business but consumers changing tastes in entertainment. To me Ringling Brother and other like minded circus's harken back to a form of entertainment from a by-gone era. I suspect a goodly percentage of the kids now attending these types of circus's are being dragged there by their parents in the hope of recapturing the nostalgia of their youth.

This is just a shame. PETA and political correctness have destroyed an American institution, and thousands of good jobs in the process. The circus treated their animal performers, and especially the elephants, with respect and care. But the wailing voices of the self righteous who always think they know best are simply louder than the voices of the circus workers who will now be on unemployment and welfare to feed their families.

Sadly, The Greatest Show on Earth is shuttering. I morn more for the future generations who will never experience seeing the awe and wonder in a child's eyes at the sight of trapeze artist, clowns, lions, tigers and elephants.

I am a defender of the Circus. I had been going to see it annually since 1956. As for animal cruely; when I last went to see the circus they were at the old Atlantic City Auditoium, an art deco palace from the late 1930's. Downstairs ahead of the show, I saw the Elephants gathered. I was frozen seeing they were UNCHAINED! In my 50+ years I had never seen unchained elephants grouped at ground level.

If those Elephants were mistreated they could never leave them unchained at floor level with women and children milling around. People whose livelihood is working with animals do not mistreat them, especially when in the spotlight of the Greatest Show on Earth.

I often hear people mistke that people are something other than animals; they are not. There are only Animals, Vegetables and minerals. We are a strange race of animals; some 4 legged animals we protect with crocodile tears, while we think nothing of eating a hamburger.

The unmitigated ignorance of hypocrisy is just to banal to deal with, at my age.

If Ringling can't turn a profit without captive elephants, well, there you have it. Is that really the only reason people go to circuses? I've never been to the circus, but I've seen elephants in zoos all across America. It would be nice if they weren't there, either, but at least they're cared for by veterinarians, not tortured, by people with no medical training, to perform stupid pet tricks for a howling audience.

We don't torture animals for fun anymore. Even Michael Vick gets this. Next story.

I knew I shouldn't have procrastinated about running away to join the circus. I love clowns. I love beautiful bright costumes. I love all of it - the whole package. I'll be attending this year when it comes to town. Better the animals live at the circus than killed for skins or tusks

What will be left is the Circus Museum in Sarasota, FL. Sarasota was the home of the Ringling and Barnum & Bailey circus for many years. The original Ringling Circus was started by John Ringling and his brothers. John built a large and flourishing business empire and made significant contributions to Sarasota, including a gorgeous mansion on the Sarasota Bay and a great art collection that is now housed on the grounds of the Ringling Museum. The Circus Museum is a great place to visit in Sarasota.

I saw my first circus circa 1949 at the old Madison Square Garden and remember it--including the "side-show" and the great clown Emmett Kelly who memorably kept trying to sweep the spotlight. My kids and grandson also saw the Greatest Show on Earth in NY. Unforgettable.

I saw my first circus about 1948. It was Clyde Beatty and very entertaining. After that it was "Super Circus" on TV and "The Greatest Show On Earth" in the movies. The last one was Ringling Bros. about 2008. The animal acts were always the best part of the live shows for me. I wonder if "PETA" has gone overboard with its zealous causes and that PETA exists mostly to benefits its paid executives?

Agree with the last person quoted. The circus at Barclays was awful - huge, crass, dull. Maybe if they had not ruined it they would not be going under.

Who needs unnecessarily cruel animal acts with our Entertainer-in-Chief?!

I doubt that Ms. Sloan saw the circus at the original Madison Square Garden, which was built in 1879 and razed in 1890.

So it's actually the profitability and not the animal rights sensitivity? Makes financial sense, but I hadn't realized that. Just in parody terms:

Tune of You and Me Against the World (classic Helen Reddy version)

Kids: Tell us again, Ringling

RINGLING;
You and us against the churls
You thought it seemed like you and us against the churls
For years the activists had nothing much to say
Business had remained okay

Remember when the circus was a smash
And we were raking in the cash
Wasn't it sad to see it crash
For our cast and crew
Animals were full of joy to entertain for you-

And us against those churls
At times it looked like you and us against the churls
But now as you read online
Receipts were in a troublesome decline

And so soon we will be gone
But not because the protests carried on
It's the big drop in revenue
Our profitable years seemed to be through
So we say goodbye to us and you
You and us against those "churls"

Kids: We loved you Ringling
Ringling; We'll miss you Kids!