Here's What Will Happen to the Ringling Circus Elephants When They Retire

​After years of pressure from animal welfare groups, the public, and tightening animal cruelty laws, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey announced today it is phasing out its use of elephants in its traveling circus.

While the announcement is considered a big win by animal rights activists, the next question is what will happen to these elephants once they step out of the boxcar and into retirement.

The 13 elephants currently on tour with the circus will be retired over the next two years and sent to live at the company's Center for Elephant Conservation in Florida, where they will join a herd of more than 40 other elephants, ac​cording to the company's press release.

The facility boasts 200 acres of grassy, treed ranch space that includes four barns and five outdoor paddocks. Since the facility opened in 1995, it has grown to become home to the largest herd of Asian elephants in North America, accord​ing to the Associated Press. The center has enabled conservation of the species through breeding and research, but it also served as the source for the circus's performing elephants, which it would begin to train from the age of two years.

The circuses and conservation center are owned by management company Feld Entertainment (which also owns several other shows, including Disney on Ice). Company president Kenneth Feld told the Associated Press the sanctuary would only allow visits from animal researchers and scientists, but he hopes to open it up to the public eventually.

"I want everybody's grandkids to be able to see Asian elephants," he sa​id.

Opening the sanctuary to the public could also give the company a chance to turn a profit from the retired animals. Keeping elephants isn't cheap: each elephant requires $65,000 a year in care costs, and Feld said the center will need to be upgraded and expanded to accommodate the new residents. And the company will continue to use other live animals in its performances, including tigers and camels.

The decision to retire the elephants is somewhat surprising considering less tha​n a year ago Feld Entertainment successfully sued a number of animal welfare groups including the Humane Society for $15.75 million after the groups spent nearly 14 years battling the circus in court over its treatment of elephants.

It wasn't the only opposition Feld has faced over its treatment of elephants, and the company has always maintained that its training practices and treatment of the animals while on its 115-city tour are humane.

The circus has long faced accusations of animal abuse due to its training techniques, though they have never been proven in court. The company has acknowledged on rec​ord it uses bullhooks (steel hooks on the end of wooden handles) and chains when training elephants, and that these tools sometimes cause wounds, but said it always complied with the federal animal welfare standards of the Animal Welfare Act.

Wayne Pacelle, the president and CEO of the Humane Society, said even if the training did had a negative impact on the elephants, the decision to retire the animals and move them to a single location could undo a lot of the damage.

"What we see at the Humane Society is how extraordinarily resilient animals are. They seem to be not only resilient, but also forgiving," Pacelle said. "They say elephants never forget, but I hope they're able to get past their prior travails and live out their lives in a setting that really acknowledges their needs."

Overall, Pacelle said the Humane Society is please with the decision, though it will be carefully watching to ensure the animals are treated well in their new home, president and CEO Wayne Pacelle told me.

"We'll take a look. It's too early to say [how the animals will be treated], but Ringling has more capacity than a lot of others," Pacelle said. "At least Ringling has got something. It's a small enough number of animals that you can wrap your brain around it and they've got great resources at that company so they've got a head start in properly caring for them."

Feld said the decision to retire the elephants was a financial decision and was not admitting guilt. He said constantly battling legislation and opposition from animal welfare groups was draining. Local governments have passed laws that prohibited the circus's practices, like Los Angeles, which last year bann​ed the use of bullhooks on circus animals in the city.

"All of the resources used to fight these things can be put towards the elephants," Feld said. "We're not reacting to our critics; we're creating the greatest resource for the preservation of the Asian elephant."

I reached out to Feld Entertainment. They were not able to provide comment by the time the story was published, but we'll update if we hear back.