The story just broke over the last 24 hours that our Masonic Brethren that began Ringling Bros. Circus will shut down its big top after over 100 years in operation.
"I have made the difficult business decision that Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey® will hold its final performances in May of this year," CEO Kenneth Feld said.
High operating costs and the decline of ticket sales "made the circus an unsustainable business for the company," Feld said.
And after "the transition of the elephants off the road, we saw an even more dramatic drop" in ticket sales, Feld said.
Outside the big top, the Ringling Bros. runs an elephant conservation center, a 200 acre of rural land in Florida, between Tampa and Orlando.
Owned and operated in 1995 by Ringlinig, the center focuses on the care and study of Asian elephants -- an endangered species that it had uses in its shows.
It's well known in our masonic circles that all seven Ringling Bros. Including their father were raised to the sublime degree at Baraboo Masonic Lodge No. 34 in Wisconsin.
