As you get older, you tend to reflect on some of the changes you have witnessed in your lifetime, and this week we learned that something which has been around since we were a child, the Ringling Bros. Barnum and Bailey Circus, will cease to exist in May. The shows under the big top have been entertaining young and old alike for 146 years, a remarkable run, wouldn’t you say? 

While it’s hard to imagine our world without it, by the same token it’s understandable why its owners are closing the doors. In addition to dwindling attendance, animal rights activists have brought a lot of pressure to bear, representing in part the overall changing attitudes about the treatment of animals. There is growing opposition to keeping them in captivity and training them to perform; some folks consider it cruel and take little pleasure in watching wild animals do tricks. Elephants, a major draw, have already been eliminated from the big top, and have been sent out to pasture, so to speak, to live out their remaining years on specially designated properties where they have room to roam freely.

Many of us have had an opportunity to enjoy a Ringling Bros. performance whenever one has been scheduled somewhere close to home. It’s far different than attending a smaller traveling circus. Sitting under the huge dome and watching aerial performers, clowns,  horses, tigers, lions, elephants and other animals put through their paces is something most young people never forget.

However, more and more adults have been finding fault with circus acts in recent years, just as they have been with marine mammals likewise taught to perform, because we’ve come to appreciate that it’s really cruel for wildlife to be confined in unnatural surroundings and trained to perform for us.

We’ve become a much more caring society of late when it comes to all animals and now routinely speak out when cats, dogs and other pets are mistreated. Gone are the days when we willingly stood by and watched any animal be mistreated. Even our zoos have changed dramatically in the past couple of decades. Animals are rarely caged and an all-out effort has been made to provide them with surroundings which more closely match what they would enjoy in the wild.

The big top will be missed, and there’s no doubt but what many young folks will miss out on an opportunity to ever see some of these animals  because of limited chances to see them in the wild. However, the reasons for closing the door on circus performances are understandable. It’s just one more sign of the changing times.