Signaling the end of a 145-year tradition, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey’s performing elephants took their final bow on May 1 during a show in Providence, RI. The move to retire the use of elephants is being widely celebrated by animal rights organizations and elephant lovers around the world.

Elephants have performed in the circus for over 200 years, with Hackaliah Bailey purchasing "Old Bet" for his circus in the early 1800s. To this day, dozens of circuses continue to use elephants, but none are as widely known or traveled as Ringling Bros.

While the spectacle of trained elephants is loved and adored by some, for decades animal rights organizations have raised loud concerns over this practice. Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey has long been accused of abusing its animal performers.

In 2011, Feld Entertainment, the parent company of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey paid the "largest ever civil penalty assessed against an exhibitor under the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) -- $270,000 -- for dozens of animal-welfare violations." However, just one year later, Ringling Bros. would win $9.3 million in settlement from ASPCA, for alleging that the circus company abused their elephants. Even so, the win didn't stop the uproar of other animal rights organizations. Companies such as PETA, have continued to speak up about these allegations.

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey finally responded to public concern last year, announcing that all elephant shows would cease by 2018. This week, they kept their promise. In a recent article for NPR, Bill Chapel notes that the decision“came after years of growing public concern for the elephants' well-being, with activists criticizing Ringling for forcing intelligent animals that, in the wild, sustain complex social relationships, to live in captivity and isolation.”

The now-retired elephants will all find a new home at the Ringling Center for Elephant Conservation located in central Florida. Established in 1995, the 200-acre, state-of-the-art facility is dedicated to the conservation, breeding and understanding of these amazing animals. There, many of the Asian elephants will be used as part of a pediatric cancer research project.

For more information on the future of these elephants, visit here.