Colorado Denies Permit for Elephants at Renaissance Festival

Let's talk about the elephant in the room...or at the Colorado Renaissance Festival . For years, the hulking beasts have joined in the festivities in Larkspur — but squeezed into a tiny pen, sometimes donning tapestries or flower crowns, and forced to do tricks and give rides when they could only walk in a slow, tight circle.

This year, there will be no elephants at the Renaissance Festival, slated for weekends June 14 through August 3: Colorado Parks and Wildlife has refused the elephants' keepers a permit to exhibit the animals at the event. The Animal Activist Legal Defense Project at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law had threatened litigation against the state if CPW issued the permit.

The elephants were brought to the festival by traveling circus Trunks and Humps, and