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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina s congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Myorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Ringling Brothers Retires Its Elephants

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Monday, May 2, 2016   

WILKES BARRE, Pa. – Ringling Brothers Circus on Sunday closed the curtain on the use of elephants in its shows with a final performance in Wilkes Barre.

Pressure has been mounting on circuses to end elephant acts. For the elephants, the traveling shows can mean long hours of being shackled and confined in small spaces, and the use of painful bullhooks for training them to do tricks.

Lisa Wathne, a captive exotic animal specialist with the Humane Society of the United States, calls the end of those practices cause for celebration.

"Ringling Brothers' decision is monumental news, and a very clear sign that times and public opinions are changing about the use of wild animals in circuses," she states.

The circus' decision to retire its elephant acts now puts Ringling Brothers almost two years ahead of its own schedule for ending those performances.

According to Wathne, several states, including Pennsylvania, are considering legislation that would phase out the use of bullhooks on elephants.

"But there are more than 50 municipalities around the country that have already banned the use of bullhooks, or banned the use of elephants or wild animals altogether," she points out.

There are still more than a dozen smaller circuses that continue to use elephants in their shows.

But Wathne stresses that as public pressure mounts and more laws are passed, more and more of them are beginning to feature only human acts.

"So, even circuses that have not completely eliminated animals or elephants from their shows yet are moving in a new direction, because surely they see the writing on the wall," she states.





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