The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus is going to stop using elephants in performances.

Animal rights groups for years have been pressuring the "Greatest Show on Earth" to come up with a pachyderm retirement plan.

"It was a decision 145 years in the making," said Juliette Feld, referring to P.T. Barnum's introduction of animals to his "traveling menagerie" in 1870. Elephants have symbolized this circus since Barnum brought an Asian elephant named Jumbo to America in 1882.

Circus officials  told The Associated Press that "the last 13 performing elephants will retire by 2018, joining 29 other pachyderms at the company's 200-acre Center for Elephant Conservation in central Florida."

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