After 145 years of elephants performing in circus acts, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey have announced the retirement of the endangered species. According to CNN, the company plans to send the beautiful elephants to a conservation in Florida. Currently, the company owns 13 Asian elephants.There are only 41,000 to 52,000 Asian elephants left in the wild, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature estimates, earning the animals an Endangered designation. But, the circus's history with elephants is vast and deserves to be acknowledged. Only then can we understand why this act of preservation is incredible.

In 1881, Barnum & Bailey purchased their first elephant at the price of $100,000. Not long after, they purchased Jumbo, the most famous elephant in history. According to Time, Jumbo's first six weeks at Madison Square Garden in NYC earned them $336,000. In 1907, Barnum & Bailey merged with Ringling Bros. Circus, and the two circuses began doing combined shows a decade later. Essentially, the world's most famous circus company was founded because of an elephant. They are majestic creatures!

After decades of shows featuring the famous elephants, allegations of animal abuse came flying in. This was where Ringling Bros. took appropriate action and listened to their customers. Meanwhile, an investigation into Ringling Bros. and how they captured their elephants brought gruesome revelations: shackled in chains, squeezed in trains, and a bullhook hungry to strike. These animals have been threatened for far too long with poaching in the wild that the company is bravely taking a stance to help the elephant preservation movement. Charities such as Ivory Ella and Save the Elephants are sweeping the nation, even the globe, to save these poor helpless creatures from being poached anymore.

Save the Elephants raises money to help educate people about the threats to elephants and teach the youth of Africa how to be an ambassador for their culture and land, while providing law enforcement in Africa to protect the animals against trafficking and poaching. Furthermore, Ivory Ella, a nonprofit organization, is a clothing store that donates 10 percent of net profits to STE. Meanwhile, Elephant Voices is a site aided by celebrities who sign personal items and sell them to donate the money directly to elephant conservation, research, and advocacy.

So why should you care about all of this? If the world's most highly acclaimed circus company can recognize it has been doing wrong and own up to it, so can we. It takes courage and bravery for the company to admit that it hasn't been helping these animals but rather exploiting them. But, the moral of this story is that not only can we undo our wrongs, but we little people still have a voice. If it weren't for customers refusing to see shows that featured the elephants performing, then Ringling wouldn't have acted. Recognition goes out to the people and how we are standing up for what we believe in and protecting our animals. It's the right thing to do.