Tyke the elephant

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"Tyke" was a circus elephant who on August 20, 1994 in Honolulu, Hawaii, killed her trainer, Allen Campbell, and mauled her groom Dallas Beckwith causing severe injuries during a Circus International performance before hundreds of horrified spectators at the Neal Blaisdell Center. Tyke then bolted from the arena and ran through downtown streets of Kakaako for more than thirty minutes. Police fired 86 shots at Tyke who eventually collapsed from the wounds and died.

Video Footage

Since she was performing at the time, the majority of Tyke's attack was caught on tape. The following video footage is from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).[link] (warning: graphic footage)

Controversies

According to PETA this wasn't the first time Tyke had gotten loose and ran out of control. On April 21, 1993, 16 months before the incident in Hawaii, Tyke ripped through the front doors of the Jaffa Mosque during a performance and ran out of control for an hour in Altoona, Pennsylvania. An estimated 4,500 schoolchildren had to evacuate the building, and the rampage caused more than $14,000 in damage. [link]
In an affidavit obtained by the USDA from a circus worker the next day on April 22, Tyke apparently had also attacked a tiger trainer while the circus was in Altoona, Pennsylvania[link]
It was also reported on July 23, 1993, that Tyke, "ran amok at the North Dakota State Fair in Minot, N.D., trampling and injuring a handler and frightening the crowd as she ran uncontrolled for 25 minutes." [link]

Aftermath

In the aftermath, Tyke became the poster elephant of circus tragedies and a symbol for animal rights. Dozens of lawsuits were filed against the city, the state, the circus and Tyke's owner, John Cuneo Jr. and his Hawthorn Corp. The suits were settled out of court, but the amounts were never made public.[link]

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