Storyville Circus Elephant Rampage (1997– ) watch online HD

On 20 August 1994 Tyke, a performing elephant with a circus in Honolulu, Hawaii, ran amok. She severely mauled her trainer to death, badly injured another, escaped from the circus tent and ran down the city streets. Eventually she was shot eighty-seven times in the interests of public safety.

This angry documentary tells her story, of how she was captured in Africa while a baby and shipped to the United States where she grew up in a circus. Although temperamentally unsuited for the tricks she was expected to perform, no one really cared about her welfare, even though she had attacked people on a previous occasion. She was a storm waiting to happen, so to speak; which no one, not least the circus owners or her trainer, really wished to acknowledge.

We are encouraged to reflect on the entire issue of using live animals in circuses. Although morally and humanely indefensible, the practice brings the crowds in; which is why some circuses, including the Moscow State Circus, continue to do it. Perhaps if owners were not so obsessively preoccupied with box-office receipts and more with the welfare of their animals, then things might change. But don't expect this to occur in the foreseeable future.