Cuneo, whose company rents animals to circuses, also agreed to find homes for all the elephants by Aug. 15. USDA must approve the new locations.

Under the decree announced by USDA on Tuesday, Cuneo gets to keep a collection of tigers and retains his license to exhibit animals. But a USDA spokesman said removing the elephants was the main priority.

"If a judge had ruled upon it, it would have been a revocation of his license and a fine. That was not our goal. Our goal was the welfare and the well-being of the elephants," USDA's Darby Holladay said on Thursday in a telephone interview.

Cuneo could not be reached for comment.

The consent decree said Cuneo and Hawthorn failed to provide regular care for the elephants, allowing some of their toenails and footpads to become overgrown.

Other violations included allowing the public to feed the animals with food from outside the facility, and failing to maintain enough space between the elephants and the public during exhibitions.

Cuneo has been targeted by USDA investigators before. He was charged with improper animal handling after a Hawthorn elephant named Tyke fatally injured his trainer at a circus in Hawaii in 1994. The animal was shot by Honolulu police.

Cuneo also paid fines in civil settlements involving his elephants in 1996 and 1998, USDA news releases show.

The 16 Hawthorn elephants are currently kept at a facility in Richmond, Illinois, 50 miles north of Chicago. Two of them have tuberculosis, which is treatable with drugs, Holladay said.

Prospective caregivers do not need to be licensed animal exhibitors but must be prepared to provide a good home.