The Hangzhou Zoo animals have shared their last performance on the last day of 2014 in the wake of increasing criticism on the use of animals as entertainment puppets in China.
Residents and visitors of Hangzhou in China's Zhejiang Province were wowed by a flaming hoop-jumping tiger and a black bear cycling when the circus opened in June 1996.
Now, according to China's state news agency Global Times, the animals have taken their final bow on Dec. 31, 2014, after giving nearly two decades of entertainment at the Hangzhou Zoo circus museum.
Part of the circus's final program included an elephant, a goat, a unicycle-riding black bear and a monkey, who all showed off the moves that had made them the darling of the crowd for almost 18 years.
In accordance with an order from the government to stop all animal entertainment practices, the zoo declared that they would no longer renew their contract with the circus upon its expiration in 2014.
The decision came nearly two years after the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development issued guidelines that indicate the prohibition of entertainment activities that involve animals.
In 2011, death-defying stunts made by tigers and lions have been removed by the circus management because of several complaints that involve safety concerns.
Many animal welfare advocates have expressed their opposition against the use of the creatures for the leisure of people and had condemned the animals' rigorous performance schedule after learning that they were forced to put on a show for the crowd four times a day during weekdays and five times on weekends and holidays.