They did at least 8 years ago[1], though. Not sure how anyone could believe that they could make animals do unnatural tricks day in day out without coercion.
I can see why someone would want to believe though. Tf you don't think about it, it'd probably be more enjoyable.
Not that it's really relevant to any other animal, but you can train dogs using only love, positive reinforcement, and a stern voice. No physical punishment is necessary.
In fact the main reason elephants were retired from Ringling Bros in the first place was because cities were making handling elephants using bullhooks illegal. That prevented Ringling Bros from ever preforming in certain cities again if they kept the elephant acts. More and more cities were joining on and then the entire state of California made handling elephants with bullhooks illegal. California, Population: 38.8 million. Ringling could have either given up California or given up the elephants, they picked California.
Even if they weren't beaten with bullhooks, a circus environment doesn't come close to meeting an elephant's needs.
