![]() Local zoo officials then gave her a lethal injection'. 'After a chase through the city, police cornered the animal and shot her 86 or 87 times until she sank to the ground, still alive and moving. The price of freedom from the circus was steep. ![]() Finally, she fell, very slowly, onto her side. The shooting went on for several more seconds. She was on her knees and could not right herself. She rocked her head violently from side to side. She slowly fell over, then awkwardly stood back up. The police were called out and started shooting at Tyke with rifles. She charged at bystanders and smashed cars as she made her way through several city blocks. She was disoriented and no idea where she was. Circus staff tried to beat her back, but no bullhook or whip could stop the rage that had been building inside her for two decades. At some point during the show, she veered from the script. At an afternoon performance at the Neal Blaidsell Center in Honolulu, it all came to a head. She could no longer take the pain and the confinement. She was tired of being beaten, whipped, and kicked. She had been in the circus nearly 20 years. In August of 1994 Tyke reached a breaking point. She vacillated between terror and boredom. 'For the next year she performed in the circus and lived in a barren concrete barn, chained, between shows. Captive Animals Protection Society (CAPS) believe there can be little mystery as to what motivated her to escape'. 'Tyke’s final day was preceded by four days confined on a ship traveling to yet another performance, 21 years of captivity, a humiliating life of performing, being beaten, chained and denied the simple act of behaving like an elephant. Even when the handler walked by the elephant after this, the elephant screamed and veered away, demonstrating fear from his presence.”' 86 times.ĭocumentation on Tyke first surfaced in 1988: “The elephant handler was observed beating the single-tusk African elephant in public to the point the elephant was screaming and bending down on three legs to avoid being hit. As the terrified elephant made a desperate run for freedom down a Hawaii street, police opened fire. The promoter attempted to corral her, and he too was wounded. At a Circus International performance in Honolulu, Tyke turned on her trainer (who was described as a “punishment-type”), killing him, before seriously injuring her groomer. These acts were, in the parlance of human psychology, cries for help. 'Tyke was a professional working-elephant who attempted her first escape from circus prison in April 1993, and a second three months later. Eventually police arrive and begin shooting, firing 87 bullets into the massive creature until it collapses dead onto a car, bleeding profusely'. Enraged and disoriented, Tyke then storms out of the arena and tears through the city streets as people flee in terror. ![]() , when Tyke's trainer attempts to intervene, the 9,500 pound animal wearing a silly pink hat crushes him, killing him instantly. 'Tyke was captured as a baby in Mozambique in 1973 and shipped to the United States, where she became the property of the Hawthorn Corporation, which specializes in supplying wild animals to circuses. And on the final day of her life she exhibted real elephant behaviour and it didn't fit the streets of Hawaii". then North Dakota, and then finally in Hawaii, she acted like a real elephant. "That's was the first natural thing thatTyke did in her life, and that was to run. "She knew she had to get out, and she would to get away from it all.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |