My mother said that Hero then walked alongside the coach looking in each window for his prey. “Running for his life, Newton barely made it aboard the train in one of the coaches. Hero tried to tip the wagon over on top of him. “My mother was 14 at the time and since the train happened to be next to the circus lot that day, she had a good view of Newton (Hero’s trainer) being chased under a wagon and barely escaping. William Buckles Woodcock Jr., an elephant trainer who says in a column that his family owned the circus, has written about the incident. The enraged elephant tried to crush Newton as well but it was a snowy day and the muddy ground saved the trainer. He then raged toward the stunned trainer, and bit (his tusks had been removed) and stomped two ponies that were in the way, killing both. Hero picked him up and tossed him 30 feet. Newton, allegedly drunk thanks to some Brookings bootleggers, reportedly flogged the giant beast. Hero may also have been feeling, well, a tad randy.Įither way, he was in no mood to be messed with. By all accounts I have heard and read, Hero was weary of abuse and ill-treatment at the hands of his trainer, Henry Newton. Hero the Elephant (seen above in an image from Buckles Blog ) was a 9-foot-tall, 5-ton Asian elephant and a featured performer in the circus. Jimmy, who was around 20, was there when an elephant, and all hell, broke loose. On May 14, 1916, the Orton Brothers Circus came to town. Jimmy grew up in and around Elkton, a small Brookings County town near the Minnesota state line. Jimmy had one claim to fame: He was one of the few people who had fired shots at a rogue elephant rampaging through South Dakota. He was a smiling Irishman who loved a good story, knew his way around a deck of cards and cherished his wife Sadie. Jimmy was a kind man, funny, wise and quick with a dime when kids appreciated such a gift. My great-uncle Jimmy Lavin was involved, as has been passed down in my family lore. and Barnum & Bailey ceased using elephants in “The Greatest Show on Earth” a few years ago, which made me think of South Dakota’s lone elephant hunt. The lawsuit claims physical and emotional injury and distress.Ringling Bros. Yesterday, the group Animal Rights Hawaii and four people who witnessed the rampage sued the elephant's keeper and owner, the circus, the promoter, the city and the state of Hawaii. "They said it would go back to Richmond and be put out to pasture." "We asked what would happen to the elephant" after the Altoona circus incident, Grace said. Tyke was owned by John Cuneo Jr., president of Hawthorn Corp., which operates an animal-training farm near Richmond, Ill. "It was a mistake for Tyke to be presented in a circus," he said.Īfter the circus leased Tyke last year, she charged through an entryway and ripped away part of a wall when someone walked behind her during a show in Altoona, and bolted from a performance in Harrisburg.Īfter the April 1993 incident, circus officials told Pennsylvania animal-rights activists that Tyke, 21 years old, would be retired, Scott Grace, president of the Altoona chapter of the Humane Society of the U.S., said yesterday. Hawaii state officials said an examination showed no illness that would explain her violent behavior.Ĭircus International owner Ed Migley said here yesterday that the elephant "had all the tendencies of a killer." The elephant barreled down a city street before being killed by police gunfire. Tyke, a 9,000-pound African elephant, crushed trainer Allan Campbell at Saturday's Circus International Show in Honolulu when he came to the aid of a groom who had upset the elephant by walking behind her. An elephant that killed her trainer in Hawaii had gone on a similar rampage in Altoona, Pa., and bolted from a circus tent in Harrisburg, Pa.
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