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‘Not a win for animal rights groups,' says circus owner after closure announcement

ELLENTON, Fla. — Feld Entertainment held a news conference Monday about the closing of the iconic Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

Kenneth Feld, the chairman and CEO of Feld Entertainment, which has owned the circus for nearly 50 years, held the news conference at 10:30 a.m. at the company's headquarters in Ellenton.

"There isn't any one thing," said Feld, chairman and CEO of Feld Entertainment. "This has been a very difficult decision for me and for the entire family."

Story: Ringling Bros. circus to close after 146 years

Feld's daughter, Juliette Feld, the company's chief operating officer, was also in attendance at Monday's news conference.

Feld Entertainment broke the news to circus employees Saturday night that the show would close permanently in May.

"We have seen a downward trend in attendance over 10 years," Juliette Feld said. “We really made every effort possible to change this trend and last year, after we retired the elephants from the touring unit, we saw a much steeper drop in sales.”

The company blamed falling ticket sales, high operating costs, changing public tastes in entertainment and prolonged battles with animal rights groups.

"Entertainment has changed, attention spans, the traditional family unit is quite different today than it was many, many years ago," Kenneth Feld said.

Photos: Circus walks elephants through downtown Orlando

Watch the Ringling Bros. news conference below:

Animal rights groups wasted no time in weighing in on the announcement.

In a statement sent Saturday night, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said it "heralds the end of what has been the saddest show on earth for wild animals, and asks all other animal circuses to follow suit, as this is a sign of changing times."

PETA and other groups have long opposed the circus and its performing animals.

Wayne Pacelle, the president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States, said the circus has changed "a great deal over a century and a half, but not fast enough. I know this is bittersweet for the Feld family, but I applaud their decision to move away from an institution grounded on inherently inhumane wild animal acts."

Feld said there is no winter in the situation.

“This is not a win for animal rights activists, nor is it a win for anything,” he said. “The over 400 people impacted is what we care about first and foremost, and it’s unfortunate.”

Ringling Bros. has two touring circuses this season and will perform 30 shows between now and May.

Major stops include Atlanta, Washington, Philadelphia, Boston and Brooklyn. The final shows will be in Providence, Rhode Island, on May 7 and at the Nassau County Coliseum in Uniondale, New York, on May 21.

Last May, after a long and costly legal battle, the company removed elephants from the shows and sent the animals to a conservation farm in Central Florida.

The animals had been the symbol of the circus since P.T. Barnum brought an Asian elephant named Jumbo to America in 1882.

Feld Entertainment won $25.2 million in settlements in 2014 from groups including the Humane Society of the United States, ending a 14-year fight over allegations that circus employees mistreated elephants.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. © 2017 Cox Media Group.