Ringling Brothers' decision to retire their elephants sooner than the initial plan of 2018 made big headlines. However, this seems more like a PR move to clean up their image, because the dark side to this story is that their elephants would merely go to Ringling Brothers' Center for Elephant Conservation. This "conservation" is essentially a breeding farm where elephants are chained, confined to concrete floors, bred and used as test subjects. Even the threat of bullhooks is still very much alive.