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The Ringling Bros. Circus has received quite a share of slams for animal cruelty. So finally, the company will retire its elephants in the coming May, a year and a half earlier than planned, said the Associated Press.

The final shows of the elephants will happen on May 1 in Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.

Applauding the decision, Wayne Pacelle, CEO and President of the Humane Society said: "Ringling had been one of the biggest defenders of this kind of archaic animal exploitation, and the imminent end of its traveling elephant acts signaled that even one of the most tough-minded and hardened animal-use companies now recognized that the world is changing and it had to adapt.

Such "abusive" shows are no longer popular, said Ingrid Newkirk of PETA.

However, the circus spokespersons said it was not a gesture against animal cruelty, but because they found it too expensive to fight the "anti-circus" and "anti-elephant" legislation in many cities.

The elephants will be shifted to Florida's 200-acre Center For Elephant Conservation, which is owned by Feld Entertainment, the parent company of Ringling Bros. Circus, said the company's spokesperson.

While it costs them $65,000 annually to care for their 11 elephants, there are another 29 at the conservation center. They will now use the funds to go on with the company's funding of pediatric cancer research and for conservation, reported the New York Times.

As cancer is less common in elephants, scientists believe that a cure for it may be found in their blood. Hence, at the conservation center, they will use many elephants for research to find a cure for pediatric cancer, according to Alana Feld, executive vice president of Feld Entertainment.

However, the conservation center too is found to be a "sham" by animal rights activists, according to Newkirk of PETA. She said elephants should be sent to a sanctuary, not a for-profit center that gets a charitable deduction once in a while.