Missouri Circus Elephants Retiring and Will ‘Roam the Land’
What do you do when you're an elephant and it's time to retire? If you're an elephant with a Missouri circus, the answer apparently is "roam the land" and no, I'm not kidding.
This is not a fictional elephant urban legend, this is a real story shared by Newsweek even of what the Missouri Moolah Circus plans to do with its elephants once they're too old to be a part of their show. It appears this was part of an investigative report that was done by KSDK in St. Louis.
Does this mean we'll see elephants roaming the land free in Missouri?
Nope. According to the KSDK report, the elephants will be part of an enclosure that occupies around 300 acres in Oklahoma.
I checked the Missouri Moolah Circus website and it appears that their group will be performing in St. Charles, Missouri at the Family Arena March 23 through March 26. I noticed there are lots of mentions of clowns and performers, but I now don't see any mention of animals. Does this mean that PETA has gotten its way and the elephants, lions and tigers will now all be retired? Inquiring minds want to know. According to their official website, the elephant answer appears to be yes. It does not appear they're satisfied with the retirement land in Oklahoma though, so we'll see how this develops as time goes by.
As of now, it appears that if you want to see elephants, you'll need to road trip to the St. Louis Zoo or Oklahoma.
