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Ringling Brothers – the largest and most profitable animal circus in the world – has three traveling circuses: the “Red Unit,” the “Blue Unit,” and the “Gold Unit” or “Hometown Edition.” Currently about 10 elephants are forced to perform with the Blue Unit, 14 with the Red Unit, and three with the Gold Unit.
Ringling Brothers has dozens more elephants at its breeding facility, the “Center for Elephant Conservation” or “CEC” outside Tampa, Florida. Although Ringling Brothers touts this facility as “conserving” this endangered species for future generations, the CEC is not producing elephants to be reintroduced into the wild, but is merely providing the circus with a steady supply of elephants to put on the road.
Also in Florida is Ringling Brothers’ retirement facility referred to as “Williston” or “Two Tales Ranch.” This is where the elephants who can no longer perform, or who are ill, are sent. In recent years, there have been numerous reports of tuberculosis among elephants at Williston (and at the CEC). For example, at least nine Ringling elephants tested positive for TB in the late ‘90s and early 2000s. More recently, in the summer and fall of 2006, two elephants at Ringling Brothers’ breeding facility tested positive for TB, and the state of Florida imposed a partial quarantine on the facility. Tuberculosis is a highly contagious disease that can be transferred between elephants and humans. Typically, tuberculosis does not occur in elephants in the wild, and is believed to be prevalent among circus elephants because of the extremely stressful lives these animals are forced to live.
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