A federal judge has given lawyers for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus until Friday, June 6, to settle on an October trial start-date, at which time they will defend the circus against allegations that its inhumane treatment of Asian elephants violates the Endangered Species Act. This groundbreaking lawsuit, brought against the circus by an ASPCA-led coalition of animal welfare organizations and a former Ringling Bros. employee, Tom Rider, is expected to be decided by bench trial (rather than a trial by jury) by no later than November of this year.

For eight years, Ringling’s parent company, Feld Entertainment, has avoided its day in court by filing meritless counter-motions, even going so far as to accuse the ASPCA of bribing Rider in exchange for his testimony. However, after the ASPCA filed a motion that included new evidence on May 21, Judge Emmet Sullivan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia decided that justice would not be served by further delay.

The ASPCA recently has come into possession of documents revealing that Ringling Bros. keeps elephants virtually immobilized for the majority of their lives. The circus moves across the country by train, and the company’s own records show that elephants are chained in boxcars for an average of more than 26 hours at a time—and sometimes for as long as 60 to 100 hours straight.

“The evidence against Ringling Bros. is simply shocking,” says Lisa Weisberg, ASPCA Senior Vice President, Government Affairs and Public Policy. “The public should be outraged at the amount of time these animals are shackled and confined, and Ringling Bros. should be ashamed at hiding this cruelty from the public eye.”

For more information on the confinement of Ringling’s elephants and the ASPCA’s pending lawsuit, please read our May 21 press release. To learn more about circus cruelty, please visit ASPCA.org/circus.