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This programme contains scenes which some viewers may find upsetting | 0:00:02 | 0:00:05 | |
SLOW, TRIBAL DIRGE | 0:00:09 | 0:00:11 | |
Allen came into the barn and I said, | 0:00:40 | 0:00:43 | |
"Allen, the only thing I can really tell you is | 0:00:43 | 0:00:46 | |
"she shouldn't be doing this." | 0:00:46 | 0:00:48 | |
"And you need to be careful." | 0:00:48 | 0:00:51 | |
I even said to the owner, then, "She's not good for this." | 0:00:52 | 0:00:56 | |
You know, "She's not good for this". | 0:00:57 | 0:00:59 | |
I told Allen not to take Tyke on the road. | 0:00:59 | 0:01:03 | |
When he came to pick up that herd, I told him, | 0:01:03 | 0:01:05 | |
"You should leave Tyke behind." | 0:01:05 | 0:01:07 | |
MUSIC: Maile Lau Li'l Li'l by Kalama's Quartet | 0:01:17 | 0:01:22 | |
It was a beautiful day, | 0:01:37 | 0:01:39 | |
and I wanted to see the famous circus. | 0:01:39 | 0:01:44 | |
I was seven years old, and I was kind of excited because... | 0:01:56 | 0:02:01 | |
..a circus never really comes to Hawaii. | 0:02:02 | 0:02:04 | |
And so we were all excited, you know, | 0:02:06 | 0:02:09 | |
we just, like, couldn't wait for it to start. | 0:02:09 | 0:02:11 | |
WHISTLE | 0:02:11 | 0:02:13 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:02:13 | 0:02:15 | |
MUSIC: Circus Music by The Hit | 0:02:15 | 0:02:17 | |
When we went to the circus, | 0:02:21 | 0:02:23 | |
my son told the usher that it was my birthday, | 0:02:23 | 0:02:27 | |
so she specially ushered us to the front seat. | 0:02:27 | 0:02:30 | |
And we had really good seats, | 0:02:31 | 0:02:34 | |
So we were, like, up front. | 0:02:34 | 0:02:36 | |
The next thing I remember is | 0:02:38 | 0:02:40 | |
I am crossing my fingers that the elephant show will start. | 0:02:40 | 0:02:45 | |
CHEERING | 0:02:48 | 0:02:50 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:02:50 | 0:02:52 | |
It was either a high wire or a trapeze act, before. | 0:02:57 | 0:03:02 | |
And, because I remember, I was watching and it ended | 0:03:02 | 0:03:04 | |
and there was some sort of announcement going on, | 0:03:04 | 0:03:07 | |
or it was... There was a fanfare or something, | 0:03:07 | 0:03:09 | |
and then there was a loud trumpet. | 0:03:09 | 0:03:11 | |
And Tyke was making noise. | 0:03:11 | 0:03:14 | |
And she wouldn't come out, she was just shaking herself. | 0:03:15 | 0:03:18 | |
And I saw this beige form moving around on the ground, | 0:03:18 | 0:03:25 | |
behind the curtain. | 0:03:25 | 0:03:27 | |
And then it came flying through the curtain, | 0:03:27 | 0:03:30 | |
followed by the elephant. | 0:03:30 | 0:03:31 | |
LOUD TRUMPETING | 0:03:31 | 0:03:33 | |
And I was watching it, I watched the elephant pick him up, | 0:03:35 | 0:03:38 | |
toss him back down, and roll him all the way out the curtain. | 0:03:38 | 0:03:41 | |
And I thought it was a dummy, | 0:03:41 | 0:03:43 | |
because it was very floppy, there was no angles to it, | 0:03:43 | 0:03:46 | |
like elbows or knees, or anything. | 0:03:46 | 0:03:48 | |
It was all just very fluid. | 0:03:48 | 0:03:49 | |
And then when he came out is when we realised, "Oh, my God! | 0:03:49 | 0:03:53 | |
"He's NOT playing with a doll. | 0:03:53 | 0:03:56 | |
"It's his trainer!" | 0:03:56 | 0:03:57 | |
LOUD DRUMS AND FANFARE | 0:03:57 | 0:04:00 | |
Oh, my goodness, oh, my... | 0:04:01 | 0:04:03 | |
And there was a guy. | 0:04:03 | 0:04:04 | |
He was in a blue, sort of... | 0:04:04 | 0:04:07 | |
His outfit, it was his circus outfit, | 0:04:07 | 0:04:09 | |
it was like a dark blue outfit, | 0:04:09 | 0:04:10 | |
and he's going, "Stop, stop, stop!" | 0:04:10 | 0:04:12 | |
And put his arms round the head of the elephant... | 0:04:12 | 0:04:15 | |
..and the elephant pushed him down. | 0:04:16 | 0:04:18 | |
And I saw the elephant go up, | 0:04:18 | 0:04:20 | |
and my daughter said, "You know what, Mum? | 0:04:20 | 0:04:23 | |
"I think it's time for us to leave." | 0:04:23 | 0:04:25 | |
SCREAMING | 0:04:25 | 0:04:28 | |
I remember the announcement. | 0:04:28 | 0:04:29 | |
"Ladies and gentlemen, please remain in your seats, everything is under control." | 0:04:29 | 0:04:33 | |
And I thought to myself immediately, it clearly was not. | 0:04:33 | 0:04:36 | |
And then the elephant started running kind of, like, randomly around the arena, | 0:04:36 | 0:04:40 | |
so it's, "OK, this is getting out of control. What's going on?" | 0:04:40 | 0:04:43 | |
And the elephant started coming towards us. | 0:04:43 | 0:04:45 | |
Directly, straight towards where we were sitting, | 0:04:46 | 0:04:49 | |
and then we were standing already with our children in our arms, | 0:04:49 | 0:04:52 | |
we went down the stairs and went out. | 0:04:52 | 0:04:53 | |
SCREAMING | 0:04:53 | 0:04:55 | |
All of a sudden, a woman yelled, a woman or a man, | 0:04:58 | 0:05:01 | |
"Get out, get out!" | 0:05:01 | 0:05:03 | |
And I was so confused, I didn't know what to do. | 0:05:03 | 0:05:06 | |
And I could hear somebody going, "He's right behind of us, | 0:05:14 | 0:05:17 | |
"he's right behind of us." | 0:05:17 | 0:05:19 | |
Next thing I know, we got hit down, | 0:05:27 | 0:05:29 | |
knocked on the ground, and then I hear this big boom. | 0:05:29 | 0:05:33 | |
And I look to the side, and there was the elephant. | 0:05:33 | 0:05:36 | |
She looked at the elephant Tyke and she said, she says, "Go away!" | 0:05:36 | 0:05:41 | |
She goes, "You leave my grandma alone! Go away!" | 0:05:41 | 0:05:44 | |
We came out, | 0:05:44 | 0:05:46 | |
and were standing about here, holding our two children, | 0:05:46 | 0:05:51 | |
and the elephant came banging through. | 0:05:51 | 0:05:54 | |
I noticed the thing was bent out, and the elephant was right there. | 0:05:54 | 0:05:57 | |
Going like... | 0:05:57 | 0:05:58 | |
We took our children and ran this way, | 0:05:58 | 0:06:01 | |
and I turned back and saw the elephant. | 0:06:01 | 0:06:04 | |
It turned and went that way. | 0:06:04 | 0:06:05 | |
It will be OK. If there's anyone that needs a medical assistance, | 0:06:05 | 0:06:09 | |
please let us know at this time. | 0:06:09 | 0:06:12 | |
There was blood all over the floor, and it still didn't, | 0:06:12 | 0:06:15 | |
I think, hit me what had like really happened. | 0:06:15 | 0:06:18 | |
-POLICE RADIO: We need two ambulances right away. -OK. | 0:06:18 | 0:06:21 | |
Two people have been crushed, and I don't know... | 0:06:21 | 0:06:23 | |
-Two people crushed? -Yes, crushed. | 0:06:23 | 0:06:25 | |
We've got people who are trampled by the elephant, | 0:06:25 | 0:06:28 | |
and people who are going to go into shock. | 0:06:28 | 0:06:31 | |
And then, before I knew it, I was in the arena in a stretcher. | 0:06:31 | 0:06:35 | |
MALE REPORTER: It started off as a day at the circus. | 0:06:36 | 0:06:39 | |
Then, before horrified spectators, | 0:06:39 | 0:06:41 | |
an elephant went wild, trampling its trainers | 0:06:41 | 0:06:43 | |
and escaping into the streets near the Blaisdell Arena. | 0:06:43 | 0:06:46 | |
One person was killed. | 0:06:46 | 0:06:48 | |
Police say nine people were injured, | 0:06:48 | 0:06:50 | |
at least three others were taken to local hospitals. | 0:06:50 | 0:06:52 | |
-FEMALE REPORTER: -Its handler was 37-year-old Allen Campbell, | 0:06:52 | 0:06:55 | |
who gave his life to save his young assistant. | 0:06:55 | 0:06:58 | |
MALE REPORTER: Police radios caught frantic yells of Honolulu patrolmen. | 0:06:58 | 0:07:01 | |
On the police scanner we hear, "Elephant on the loose in Kakaako, | 0:07:01 | 0:07:06 | |
"heading toward Queen Street." | 0:07:06 | 0:07:09 | |
And... | 0:07:09 | 0:07:11 | |
we all stopped and looked at each other, thinking, | 0:07:11 | 0:07:14 | |
"Did we just hear elephant?" | 0:07:14 | 0:07:16 | |
So my photographer and I drove out this way, | 0:07:16 | 0:07:18 | |
and he dropped me off right here, on the corner of Ward and Queen. | 0:07:18 | 0:07:22 | |
So I was just coming down Ward Avenue, | 0:07:22 | 0:07:24 | |
and turned onto this street, and when I got onto this street | 0:07:24 | 0:07:27 | |
I saw the elephant coming down the road, here, | 0:07:27 | 0:07:30 | |
with the police officers behind. | 0:07:30 | 0:07:34 | |
I took my shoes off and I ran with my nylon stockings down that street, | 0:07:34 | 0:07:38 | |
looking for the elephant. | 0:07:38 | 0:07:40 | |
Came up to the corner and kind of looked, you know, "What's going on?" | 0:07:40 | 0:07:45 | |
And, er... | 0:07:45 | 0:07:47 | |
I saw the elephant chasing a person around, in the lot there, | 0:07:47 | 0:07:51 | |
really, really agitated. | 0:07:51 | 0:07:52 | |
And the person was just running around, all around the car, | 0:07:52 | 0:07:55 | |
dancing around the car, and the elephant was moving fast, | 0:07:55 | 0:07:58 | |
the person was moving a little faster. | 0:07:58 | 0:07:59 | |
Watch out! | 0:07:59 | 0:08:01 | |
Run! | 0:08:01 | 0:08:02 | |
I remember glancing out my window and I see an elephant, | 0:08:03 | 0:08:07 | |
just going in circles and round and around. | 0:08:07 | 0:08:10 | |
I thought, something's wrong. | 0:08:10 | 0:08:12 | |
Watch out! | 0:08:12 | 0:08:13 | |
I see this gentleman try to close the wire gate on Tyke, | 0:08:13 | 0:08:17 | |
and she just knocks it out, | 0:08:17 | 0:08:20 | |
knocks it open like it's nothing. | 0:08:20 | 0:08:21 | |
Whoa, whoa! God! | 0:08:21 | 0:08:24 | |
And Tyke just goes after him. And it was clear that he was in danger. | 0:08:26 | 0:08:30 | |
I saw a police officer raise his pistol | 0:08:30 | 0:08:33 | |
and fires the first shot. | 0:08:33 | 0:08:35 | |
BURSTS OF GUNFIRE | 0:08:35 | 0:08:41 | |
REPORTER: Those were the first shots fired. | 0:08:41 | 0:08:43 | |
From there she made her way through the streets of Kakaako. | 0:08:43 | 0:08:46 | |
And then, I'm screaming, "No!" | 0:08:46 | 0:08:49 | |
DRIVING, EMOTIONAL MUSIC | 0:08:49 | 0:08:52 | |
TYRES SCREECH | 0:09:10 | 0:09:11 | |
SIRENS BLARE | 0:09:15 | 0:09:17 | |
And as we rounded the corner, | 0:09:23 | 0:09:25 | |
we saw just an army of SWAT team members | 0:09:25 | 0:09:29 | |
and police and fire trucks, | 0:09:29 | 0:09:31 | |
and we were told to stay back, | 0:09:31 | 0:09:33 | |
so we sat, basically, behind the police cars. | 0:09:33 | 0:09:38 | |
And we saw Tyke right there, sitting up. | 0:09:38 | 0:09:42 | |
She was sitting up, | 0:09:42 | 0:09:43 | |
and I just saw her trunk flailing back and forth | 0:09:43 | 0:09:48 | |
because she was swatting away the barrage of bullets coming her way. | 0:09:48 | 0:09:51 | |
TWO SHOTS FIRE | 0:09:55 | 0:09:56 | |
MELANCHOLY CELLO | 0:09:56 | 0:09:58 | |
'We're told circus officials had tried to tranquillise the animal, | 0:10:04 | 0:10:07 | |
'but it just didn't work, and when the public's safety became an issue, | 0:10:07 | 0:10:11 | |
'the police did what they had to do.' | 0:10:11 | 0:10:13 | |
'OK, right now, | 0:10:16 | 0:10:17 | |
'we have a live report from our reporter at the scene.' | 0:10:17 | 0:10:20 | |
Dick, right now, they're preparing to shoot the elephant again. | 0:10:20 | 0:10:23 | |
They are behind us, behind the crowd. | 0:10:23 | 0:10:25 | |
What they are trying to do is clear the area | 0:10:25 | 0:10:27 | |
before they shoot the elephant. | 0:10:27 | 0:10:28 | |
The elephant is down. | 0:10:28 | 0:10:30 | |
DISTANT BANGING | 0:10:31 | 0:10:32 | |
Those are shots, I think. | 0:10:32 | 0:10:34 | |
Come over here, girl. | 0:10:35 | 0:10:37 | |
Oh, my God! | 0:10:38 | 0:10:40 | |
DISTANT SHOTS | 0:10:42 | 0:10:44 | |
SOMBRE, EXPANSIVE SYNTHS | 0:10:46 | 0:10:49 | |
People were praying, | 0:10:57 | 0:10:59 | |
people were just silently sobbing. | 0:10:59 | 0:11:01 | |
I heard, I think, a child's voice here and there, "What's happening?" | 0:11:03 | 0:11:07 | |
'William Dallas Beckwith looked dead, as the angry elephant, Tyke, | 0:11:24 | 0:11:28 | |
'tossed his lifeless body from side to side. | 0:11:28 | 0:11:31 | |
'But he's very much on his feet, with only cuts and bruises, | 0:11:31 | 0:11:35 | |
'no broken bones, and no internal injuries.' | 0:11:35 | 0:11:39 | |
'Beckwith has been working for the Hawthorn Corporation, | 0:11:39 | 0:11:41 | |
'the elephant's owner, for about a month. | 0:11:41 | 0:11:43 | |
'He was Campbell's assistant.' | 0:11:43 | 0:11:45 | |
Tonight, the elephant's owner says | 0:11:45 | 0:11:47 | |
the animal has never been a problem before. | 0:11:47 | 0:11:49 | |
What made it go so out of control, kill its handler, | 0:11:49 | 0:11:53 | |
and trample people and property on city streets? | 0:11:53 | 0:11:55 | |
I have had elephants since 1954. | 0:11:55 | 0:12:00 | |
This is 1994, and have never, ever, once had an elephant go loose | 0:12:01 | 0:12:07 | |
or go after somebody in a building, or do anything... | 0:12:07 | 0:12:10 | |
in all those years. | 0:12:10 | 0:12:12 | |
Among today's claims, that there were previous incidents with Tyke, | 0:12:13 | 0:12:17 | |
and circus officials should have been aware of the potential dangers here. | 0:12:17 | 0:12:20 | |
In Minot, North Dakota, an elephant named Tyke | 0:12:20 | 0:12:22 | |
belonging to the Hawthorn group | 0:12:22 | 0:12:24 | |
again got out of control | 0:12:24 | 0:12:27 | |
and had to be contained. | 0:12:27 | 0:12:29 | |
Prior to that, in Altoona, Pennsylvania, | 0:12:30 | 0:12:32 | |
an elephant named Tyke broke loose from her chains, | 0:12:32 | 0:12:36 | |
ran around the arena until she was controlled. | 0:12:36 | 0:12:39 | |
'Animal Rights Hawaii wants the court and city officials to ban animal performances in the future.' | 0:12:39 | 0:12:45 | |
SLOW SYNTH DRONE | 0:12:45 | 0:12:49 | |
My first encounter with Tyke. | 0:13:22 | 0:13:24 | |
Walked into the barn, | 0:13:24 | 0:13:26 | |
Mr Cuneo was showing me the herd, | 0:13:26 | 0:13:30 | |
and... | 0:13:30 | 0:13:32 | |
she turned, ears out, picked up a mouthful of hay, | 0:13:32 | 0:13:37 | |
or a trunk full of hay, and threw it at me. | 0:13:37 | 0:13:39 | |
And I said, "Uh-oh." | 0:13:44 | 0:13:46 | |
Oh, Mr Cuneo downplayed it. | 0:13:46 | 0:13:47 | |
"Oh, Ty. She does that with everyone, she's just getting to know you, | 0:13:47 | 0:13:51 | |
"she's just..." | 0:13:51 | 0:13:52 | |
And I looked at that elephant, and I said, "Uh-oh." | 0:13:52 | 0:13:55 | |
This is me with Tyke and Jackie in Japan in '89. | 0:13:56 | 0:14:01 | |
And she was pretty fair-sized back then. | 0:14:01 | 0:14:03 | |
I'm 5'8". So right there she would have been over seven feet tall. | 0:14:03 | 0:14:08 | |
She knew her tricks, | 0:14:08 | 0:14:09 | |
and she did everything, you know, | 0:14:09 | 0:14:11 | |
she was a pretty versatile elephant. | 0:14:11 | 0:14:13 | |
She used to throw the balls, and catch batons, | 0:14:13 | 0:14:17 | |
and ring the bell, | 0:14:17 | 0:14:18 | |
and she used to ride a tricycle, | 0:14:18 | 0:14:20 | |
which she got too big for. | 0:14:20 | 0:14:22 | |
Tyke was one of the performers, | 0:14:22 | 0:14:26 | |
so she would only be brought over | 0:14:26 | 0:14:27 | |
to my side of the barn periodically. | 0:14:27 | 0:14:30 | |
But when she was brought over, | 0:14:31 | 0:14:33 | |
I couldn't even go in the room with my elephants, | 0:14:33 | 0:14:37 | |
because she'd charge me, | 0:14:37 | 0:14:39 | |
she'd have her ears out. | 0:14:39 | 0:14:41 | |
She was... | 0:14:41 | 0:14:43 | |
She was an unhappy camper. | 0:14:43 | 0:14:44 | |
I moved to Venice because of the connection with the circus. | 0:14:55 | 0:15:00 | |
I spent 30 years or so involved with Ringling Brothers, | 0:15:00 | 0:15:02 | |
so this was their winter home. | 0:15:02 | 0:15:04 | |
You know, we would spend ten months out on tour, | 0:15:04 | 0:15:07 | |
and then come down to here for three months, | 0:15:07 | 0:15:10 | |
and then start it all over again. | 0:15:10 | 0:15:12 | |
I mean, I can't go... | 0:15:14 | 0:15:15 | |
..anywhere without remembering something that went on, | 0:15:16 | 0:15:20 | |
back when I was 18, 19 years old. | 0:15:20 | 0:15:22 | |
I've been coming here since, you know, I was a kid. | 0:15:22 | 0:15:25 | |
I'm constantly walking in memories. | 0:15:25 | 0:15:29 | |
My mother asked me to take my siblings to the circus. | 0:15:32 | 0:15:35 | |
The circus was in town. | 0:15:35 | 0:15:36 | |
I knew nothing about circus, really, and what goes on. | 0:15:37 | 0:15:42 | |
So I took them to the show, and that was my first time. | 0:15:44 | 0:15:47 | |
ELABORATE CIRCUS MARCH | 0:15:47 | 0:15:49 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:15:51 | 0:15:53 | |
So, the last act to come on was the elephant act, | 0:16:03 | 0:16:05 | |
and that's what did it. | 0:16:05 | 0:16:07 | |
That's what did it. | 0:16:07 | 0:16:08 | |
It was the elephant act, the music was jamming, | 0:16:10 | 0:16:12 | |
and the elephants were moving. | 0:16:12 | 0:16:13 | |
And seeing Gunther Gebel Williams, | 0:16:13 | 0:16:15 | |
it was just one big party out there, and I wanted to be a part of it. | 0:16:15 | 0:16:18 | |
It was the magic of Gunther Gebel Williams, | 0:16:20 | 0:16:22 | |
it was just something about him | 0:16:22 | 0:16:25 | |
that made me say, you know, "I want to work with those animals". | 0:16:25 | 0:16:29 | |
Because of this gentleman, the way he handled the animals. | 0:16:29 | 0:16:33 | |
I wanted to be a part of his crew. | 0:16:33 | 0:16:34 | |
And I ran away with the circus that night. | 0:16:35 | 0:16:38 | |
Well, fast-forward 15 years, | 0:16:42 | 0:16:43 | |
I was the boss's right-hand man. | 0:16:43 | 0:16:45 | |
I was working with all the animals that he was working with. | 0:16:45 | 0:16:48 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:16:48 | 0:16:51 | |
My first job was with Hawthorn Corporation. | 0:16:51 | 0:16:54 | |
FLASHY FUNKY BEAT | 0:16:54 | 0:16:58 | |
I was a trainer for them. | 0:16:58 | 0:17:00 | |
I was in charge of trucking them around, | 0:17:00 | 0:17:02 | |
their safety, their welfare, their food. | 0:17:02 | 0:17:06 | |
Anything and everything about the herd was all on me. | 0:17:06 | 0:17:09 | |
-REPORTER: -'Tyrone Taylor is living his dream, | 0:17:09 | 0:17:11 | |
'performing and travelling from city to city | 0:17:11 | 0:17:14 | |
'with his herd of elephants. | 0:17:14 | 0:17:15 | |
'He's one of only 100 elephant trainers in the country.' | 0:17:15 | 0:17:18 | |
Intelligence is important. | 0:17:18 | 0:17:20 | |
And the desire, I love this work. | 0:17:20 | 0:17:22 | |
This is not work to me, this is playing. | 0:17:22 | 0:17:24 | |
Mr Cuneo's elephants were known as bad elephants, | 0:17:25 | 0:17:28 | |
and bad meaning disposition. | 0:17:28 | 0:17:31 | |
He had some tough elephants. | 0:17:31 | 0:17:32 | |
And you had to be really firm with them, to get around them. | 0:17:32 | 0:17:38 | |
We had Tyke, Jackie, Hattie and Queen. | 0:17:38 | 0:17:40 | |
Tyke and Jackie were the Africans, | 0:17:40 | 0:17:42 | |
and Queen and Hattie were my two Asians. | 0:17:42 | 0:17:45 | |
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE | 0:17:45 | 0:17:49 | |
Tyke was very... | 0:17:49 | 0:17:51 | |
At the point that I had taken over with her, she was... | 0:17:51 | 0:17:55 | |
I would say very, very gun shy. | 0:17:55 | 0:17:58 | |
Very touchy. | 0:17:58 | 0:17:59 | |
She was instantly expecting... | 0:17:59 | 0:18:02 | |
..some type of discipline. | 0:18:03 | 0:18:05 | |
And I saw that in her. | 0:18:05 | 0:18:07 | |
I saw that, and I was reading it. | 0:18:07 | 0:18:09 | |
I had to read this elephant, | 0:18:09 | 0:18:10 | |
I had to rediscover everything about this elephant, | 0:18:10 | 0:18:14 | |
because no-one told me anything about her. | 0:18:14 | 0:18:16 | |
GLOOMY ORCHESTRAL PIECE | 0:18:16 | 0:18:19 | |
I was the compound manager | 0:18:26 | 0:18:28 | |
and I was also in charge of taking care | 0:18:28 | 0:18:32 | |
of the breeding bull that they had. | 0:18:32 | 0:18:34 | |
When the acts were in, they all were lined up | 0:18:35 | 0:18:39 | |
and chained in the barn... | 0:18:39 | 0:18:42 | |
..and other than getting practice, | 0:18:43 | 0:18:48 | |
they stayed chained up, 22 hours a day. | 0:18:48 | 0:18:51 | |
Not being able to wander around and visit and interact, and... | 0:18:54 | 0:18:58 | |
..do all the tactile stuff that elephants do so much of, | 0:18:59 | 0:19:04 | |
in their daily lives, with each other. | 0:19:04 | 0:19:06 | |
They just weren't able to be elephants at all, | 0:19:06 | 0:19:08 | |
they were little pets on a string that people wanted them to be. | 0:19:08 | 0:19:13 | |
I was one of the very few women that were working elephants at that time. | 0:19:15 | 0:19:21 | |
They just... | 0:19:21 | 0:19:22 | |
It was testosterone-fuelled, | 0:19:22 | 0:19:24 | |
it was guys, erm... | 0:19:24 | 0:19:28 | |
being tough. | 0:19:28 | 0:19:30 | |
Being macho. | 0:19:30 | 0:19:31 | |
I can beat up a full-grown elephant. | 0:19:31 | 0:19:33 | |
It was just more the culture back then. | 0:19:34 | 0:19:36 | |
They would be beaten until the elephants were screaming, | 0:19:36 | 0:19:40 | |
until they gave up. | 0:19:40 | 0:19:41 | |
Whatever behaviour they were doing or not. | 0:19:42 | 0:19:46 | |
Come on, man, you can do better than that! | 0:19:46 | 0:19:48 | |
Sit! There you go. | 0:19:48 | 0:19:50 | |
Touch him, hurt him! | 0:19:50 | 0:19:52 | |
-Make him scream! -ELEPHANT TRUMPETS | 0:19:52 | 0:19:54 | |
Tyke, she required a lot, lot more discipline, | 0:19:54 | 0:19:58 | |
because she was strong-willed, and she was... | 0:19:58 | 0:20:01 | |
She just fought tooth and nail to not have to do what she was doing, | 0:20:01 | 0:20:07 | |
and so she required a lot more... | 0:20:07 | 0:20:10 | |
..work - | 0:20:11 | 0:20:12 | |
"Tuning up" is what they used to call it - | 0:20:12 | 0:20:15 | |
than some of the others. | 0:20:15 | 0:20:18 | |
Just a lot of discipline, heavy-handed discipline. | 0:20:18 | 0:20:21 | |
A lot of spankings. | 0:20:21 | 0:20:22 | |
It was ugly. It was ugly. | 0:20:22 | 0:20:25 | |
Things have happened in our lifetime, | 0:20:25 | 0:20:27 | |
and she has kept those thoughts. I mean, she's a very smart elephant. | 0:20:27 | 0:20:33 | |
And she kept all of that with her and, being as large as she is, | 0:20:33 | 0:20:37 | |
if she was afraid of something, or something wasn't going her way, | 0:20:37 | 0:20:41 | |
she would actually just leave. She would step out. | 0:20:41 | 0:20:43 | |
That's what I mean, stepping off. Then she would leave. | 0:20:43 | 0:20:45 | |
'An African elephant named Tyke went wild before circus performers. | 0:20:51 | 0:20:55 | |
'The elephant burst through the doors of the Jaffa Mosque | 0:20:55 | 0:20:58 | |
'where the circus was performing, causing about 12,000 in damage.' | 0:20:58 | 0:21:02 | |
Altoona, Pennsylvania. | 0:21:03 | 0:21:05 | |
OK, we get there, and another trainer had came in, | 0:21:05 | 0:21:08 | |
to see if I needed any help. | 0:21:08 | 0:21:10 | |
It was the same organisation, | 0:21:10 | 0:21:11 | |
we were both from the Hawthorn Corporation. | 0:21:11 | 0:21:14 | |
And his groom, the trainer's groom, | 0:21:14 | 0:21:16 | |
was really agitating my elephant that day. | 0:21:16 | 0:21:18 | |
She wasn't having any of it, and she decided to go run around, | 0:21:18 | 0:21:22 | |
and run through doors. | 0:21:22 | 0:21:25 | |
The police were called out, I believe they were going to shoot her. | 0:21:25 | 0:21:29 | |
They wanted me to step away from her, | 0:21:29 | 0:21:31 | |
they were telling me to step away, and they had firearms out. | 0:21:31 | 0:21:34 | |
There was no way for her to get back in the building, | 0:21:35 | 0:21:37 | |
she's on a two-storey overhang. | 0:21:37 | 0:21:40 | |
What are we going to do? Well, my job is not to leave my animal. | 0:21:40 | 0:21:43 | |
I was not going to leave my animal. | 0:21:43 | 0:21:45 | |
I was going to get her back to where she needed to be, | 0:21:45 | 0:21:47 | |
and we did all right. | 0:21:47 | 0:21:48 | |
So, we got her back to the barn and taken care of, | 0:21:48 | 0:21:50 | |
and put her away and everything was good. | 0:21:50 | 0:21:53 | |
No-one was hurt. | 0:21:53 | 0:21:54 | |
But she did run, she did cause a spectacle and she did run, | 0:21:54 | 0:21:57 | |
and that's when she was known... | 0:21:57 | 0:21:59 | |
THEN I knew she was a runner. | 0:21:59 | 0:22:01 | |
I think the first time I heard of Tyke was in 1993. | 0:22:21 | 0:22:25 | |
Someone from the Humane Society in Altoona, Pennsylvania called us, | 0:22:25 | 0:22:31 | |
said an elephant had crashed out of an indoor arena, | 0:22:31 | 0:22:36 | |
knocked out some doors, wound up out on a loading dock, | 0:22:36 | 0:22:40 | |
and it took them a couple of hours to get her under control. | 0:22:40 | 0:22:42 | |
Luckily, it was a loading dock, and she couldn't step off. | 0:22:42 | 0:22:46 | |
If it had been a street out there, she would have been gone. | 0:22:46 | 0:22:50 | |
It would've happened in Altoona, instead of Hawaii. | 0:22:50 | 0:22:54 | |
And the person from the Humane Society | 0:22:54 | 0:22:55 | |
asked me what they should do. | 0:22:55 | 0:22:57 | |
And of course I said, "Don't ever let her perform again." | 0:22:57 | 0:23:02 | |
"She's an African, she did that once, she's going to do it again." | 0:23:02 | 0:23:05 | |
Africans just don't put up with what Asians put up with for so long. | 0:23:06 | 0:23:10 | |
That's what people don't know about elephants. | 0:23:12 | 0:23:14 | |
They're just dangerous. | 0:23:14 | 0:23:16 | |
And you have a false sense of security, somehow, | 0:23:17 | 0:23:20 | |
in a performing situation. | 0:23:20 | 0:23:22 | |
I mean, I know probably as much as anybody about how they act | 0:23:23 | 0:23:26 | |
and what they do... | 0:23:26 | 0:23:28 | |
..and they'll always surprise you, | 0:23:29 | 0:23:31 | |
and something that you don't expect could easily happen at any time. | 0:23:31 | 0:23:35 | |
After Altoona... | 0:23:38 | 0:23:39 | |
..you know, I even said to the owner then, "She's not good for this." | 0:23:42 | 0:23:46 | |
You know, "She's not good for this." | 0:23:47 | 0:23:49 | |
But I was being dismissed as I don't know what I'm talking about. | 0:23:49 | 0:23:53 | |
"You just need to be firmer, you need to be heavier, | 0:23:54 | 0:23:58 | |
"you need to get her back in there, and this is how you do it." | 0:23:58 | 0:24:01 | |
And over at Hawthorn, they had a reputation for heavy-handed training, | 0:24:01 | 0:24:06 | |
a lot of the trainers were, like I say, old-school trainers. | 0:24:06 | 0:24:09 | |
They've been around, | 0:24:09 | 0:24:10 | |
they've come through the ranks because they had their families. | 0:24:10 | 0:24:13 | |
In this business it's passed down, generation to generation. | 0:24:14 | 0:24:17 | |
SLOW, SOMBRE AMERICANA | 0:24:17 | 0:24:21 | |
I'm born in the business. | 0:24:39 | 0:24:42 | |
Fourth generation. | 0:24:42 | 0:24:44 | |
My parents worked with animals, | 0:24:44 | 0:24:46 | |
my dad was in concessions, | 0:24:46 | 0:24:47 | |
my mum was an aerialist. | 0:24:47 | 0:24:49 | |
I knew in third grade I wanted to work elephants. | 0:24:50 | 0:24:53 | |
I wanted to make it my life. | 0:24:53 | 0:24:54 | |
MC: And here they come. | 0:24:54 | 0:24:55 | |
The biggest performers of them all... | 0:24:55 | 0:24:59 | |
The Walker Brothers Circus performing elephants! | 0:24:59 | 0:25:04 | |
CHEERING | 0:25:04 | 0:25:06 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:25:06 | 0:25:09 | |
I was taught how to use a bull hook, you know. It, er... | 0:25:11 | 0:25:15 | |
Most gentlemen... | 0:25:17 | 0:25:20 | |
You cue with your right hand, | 0:25:20 | 0:25:21 | |
you carry the bull hook in your left hand. | 0:25:21 | 0:25:24 | |
You are cueing them by voice. | 0:25:24 | 0:25:26 | |
If there's a problem... | 0:25:26 | 0:25:28 | |
the elephant's getting lazy, you know, it doesn't... | 0:25:28 | 0:25:31 | |
instead of skipping, it's going to, | 0:25:31 | 0:25:33 | |
"Well, I feel like doing this today." You know. | 0:25:33 | 0:25:35 | |
And maybe you'll take the bull hook and shift it to your right hand, | 0:25:35 | 0:25:39 | |
and then they see you moving the bull hook, you know. | 0:25:39 | 0:25:43 | |
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE | 0:25:43 | 0:25:44 | |
Not just me, you could take certain trainers that I grew up with | 0:25:44 | 0:25:49 | |
could go into Tyke and work her the same way I did. | 0:25:49 | 0:25:53 | |
There's just a certain discipline that you've got | 0:25:54 | 0:25:56 | |
and a certain way you work elephants, you know. | 0:25:56 | 0:25:58 | |
And then you have certain trainers that came in that, | 0:26:01 | 0:26:04 | |
like I said, I didn't know Allen, I didn't know this Tyrone, | 0:26:04 | 0:26:08 | |
I didn't know any of these guys. | 0:26:08 | 0:26:09 | |
I grew up with a certain era of trainers, | 0:26:09 | 0:26:12 | |
and then these guys came along, you know. | 0:26:12 | 0:26:15 | |
When I'm affectionate with my animal, my elephant, | 0:26:16 | 0:26:19 | |
it's all hands-on. | 0:26:19 | 0:26:22 | |
It's all love. It's all here, it's under the leg, it's behind the ear, | 0:26:22 | 0:26:26 | |
it's showing them all this love that they're going to get, | 0:26:26 | 0:26:29 | |
because they get that from each other through their touches, | 0:26:29 | 0:26:32 | |
so I had to be more hands-on and physical and physical. | 0:26:32 | 0:26:34 | |
And not just light touches, I'm giving hands, | 0:26:34 | 0:26:36 | |
I'm letting 'em know you're elephant, I'm elephant. | 0:26:36 | 0:26:38 | |
"Oh, it's good. Good." Even through my tone of voice. "It's good." | 0:26:38 | 0:26:41 | |
A lot of my work is done from over here. | 0:26:41 | 0:26:44 | |
I don't have to come across unless I really need to catch an ear. | 0:26:44 | 0:26:47 | |
Remember, that's elephant. That's ten foot tall. | 0:26:48 | 0:26:51 | |
How am I going to get her head down? | 0:26:51 | 0:26:53 | |
Put it to the top, head down. And then she'll bring the head down. | 0:26:53 | 0:26:56 | |
If I have this and I just want them to move, | 0:26:56 | 0:26:58 | |
and I don't want to bring the hook out, then, I can say, | 0:26:58 | 0:27:01 | |
"Move. Move. Move. | 0:27:01 | 0:27:02 | |
"Move back, move back. | 0:27:02 | 0:27:03 | |
STERNLY: "Come in line. Come in line." Voice changes. | 0:27:03 | 0:27:06 | |
"Come in line. All right, come in line." | 0:27:06 | 0:27:08 | |
"Trunk! Trunk!" | 0:27:09 | 0:27:10 | |
"All right, move up tail! Move up tail!" | 0:27:11 | 0:27:14 | |
And then we move out. | 0:27:14 | 0:27:15 | |
So everything is changed because now we become elephant, and we step hard. | 0:27:15 | 0:27:19 | |
Because elephants, even though they step light, they're stepping hard. | 0:27:19 | 0:27:22 | |
FAINT TRUMPETING | 0:27:23 | 0:27:26 | |
Elephants are big, and they can be very dangerous, | 0:27:29 | 0:27:33 | |
and the theory back then was, well, as long as they are afraid of you, | 0:27:33 | 0:27:37 | |
they are not going to do anything. | 0:27:37 | 0:27:40 | |
But, if you happen to have an elephant that was strong-willed, | 0:27:40 | 0:27:45 | |
and spirited... | 0:27:45 | 0:27:47 | |
They were the ones that were going to give you trouble. | 0:27:47 | 0:27:49 | |
Because they thought about it, and they looked at you and went, | 0:27:50 | 0:27:53 | |
"You know, you're full of it! I don't have to do what you say. | 0:27:53 | 0:27:57 | |
"I'm 10,000lbs, you're not. | 0:27:57 | 0:28:00 | |
"That little stick is not going to help you any." | 0:28:00 | 0:28:03 | |
And elephants are methodical. | 0:28:04 | 0:28:06 | |
Asian elephants will wait for years to kill you if they are so inclined. | 0:28:06 | 0:28:12 | |
They hold a grudge. | 0:28:12 | 0:28:13 | |
They have long memories. | 0:28:13 | 0:28:15 | |
African elephants, too, I mean, they're very bright, | 0:28:16 | 0:28:19 | |
they're very intelligent, and they will remember you, for ever. | 0:28:19 | 0:28:23 | |
Whether it's good or bad. | 0:28:23 | 0:28:24 | |
And you better hope that they are thinking good thoughts | 0:28:24 | 0:28:28 | |
if you're having to go in with them again. | 0:28:28 | 0:28:30 | |
BIRDS CHIRRUP | 0:28:32 | 0:28:35 | |
Ty? | 0:28:37 | 0:28:39 | |
Ty? | 0:28:40 | 0:28:41 | |
'I went through several grooms that Mr Cuneo gave me, | 0:28:43 | 0:28:46 | |
'but I knew I needed only one. THEY CHUCKLE | 0:28:46 | 0:28:49 | |
My groom was Warren Wilkinson, | 0:28:49 | 0:28:52 | |
and he was... | 0:28:52 | 0:28:54 | |
He's a gentleman that I have known since he was like nine years old. | 0:28:54 | 0:28:58 | |
I told you I ain't changed, bro. Told you I ain't changed. | 0:28:58 | 0:29:02 | |
'I trust Tyrone with my life. I have known him my whole life.' | 0:29:02 | 0:29:05 | |
At Hawthorn, first thing he did was he brought me over | 0:29:08 | 0:29:10 | |
and let me see the elephants. | 0:29:10 | 0:29:13 | |
He explained to me a little bit about them, | 0:29:13 | 0:29:15 | |
kinda gave me, you know, the rundown, | 0:29:15 | 0:29:17 | |
that they were different than the animals | 0:29:17 | 0:29:19 | |
I was used to working with. | 0:29:19 | 0:29:21 | |
That they were a lot more aggressive. | 0:29:24 | 0:29:26 | |
POMPOUS FAIRGROUND MARCH | 0:29:26 | 0:29:29 | |
Minot, North Dakota. And it was an outside date. | 0:29:37 | 0:29:41 | |
That means our ring was set up on the outside, we were at a fairground. | 0:29:41 | 0:29:44 | |
Mr Cuneo had sent down another groom for me, | 0:29:46 | 0:29:48 | |
he says, "You need a... You need another groom." | 0:29:48 | 0:29:51 | |
And I said, "I don't, I have Warren, I have my groom, Warren, now," | 0:29:51 | 0:29:55 | |
and I didn't need another groom, | 0:29:55 | 0:29:57 | |
He was persistent on working with Tyke. | 0:29:57 | 0:29:59 | |
No-one works with Tyke but me, | 0:29:59 | 0:30:01 | |
and I don't need anyone messing with Tyke | 0:30:01 | 0:30:04 | |
or doing anything, getting her attention, | 0:30:04 | 0:30:06 | |
and this gentleman proceeded to keep calling her name. | 0:30:06 | 0:30:10 | |
And I told the gentleman, "Don't say anything. | 0:30:10 | 0:30:13 | |
"Just stand there, don't say a word." | 0:30:13 | 0:30:16 | |
But he was persistent on just calling her name, letting it be known, | 0:30:16 | 0:30:21 | |
"I know that elephant. | 0:30:21 | 0:30:23 | |
"I know how to handle Tyke. | 0:30:23 | 0:30:25 | |
"I know what to do with Tyke." | 0:30:25 | 0:30:26 | |
Everyone that came from that organisation thought they knew what to do with Tyke. | 0:30:26 | 0:30:30 | |
It was the wrong thing to do. | 0:30:30 | 0:30:32 | |
And that particular time, | 0:30:32 | 0:30:34 | |
she waited until the right time, | 0:30:34 | 0:30:36 | |
and she went after the guy. | 0:30:36 | 0:30:37 | |
I just heard Ty calling Tyke's name. | 0:30:37 | 0:30:42 | |
I turned around and that's when I've seen Tyke attacking Mike Pursley. | 0:30:43 | 0:30:49 | |
She turned, and knocked him into a portable dumpster. | 0:30:49 | 0:30:53 | |
We had a portable trash container. | 0:30:53 | 0:30:55 | |
Huge container. | 0:30:56 | 0:30:57 | |
And she pinned him up against that container, | 0:30:57 | 0:31:00 | |
and used her trunk to grind him into that container, | 0:31:00 | 0:31:07 | |
and used her trunk to knock him down, | 0:31:07 | 0:31:10 | |
and go on him, used the base of the trunk, | 0:31:10 | 0:31:13 | |
and had her trunk wrapped around one ankle and kept pulling him back. | 0:31:13 | 0:31:17 | |
She kicked him, and would pull him back to her. | 0:31:17 | 0:31:21 | |
Kick him, pull him back to her. | 0:31:21 | 0:31:22 | |
She did that probably about three or four times. | 0:31:22 | 0:31:25 | |
She was trying to kill him, so I had to get her off... | 0:31:25 | 0:31:27 | |
..and what I did was I stuck my bull hook into her ear. | 0:31:28 | 0:31:32 | |
That's all I had, there was no time to wail and flail. | 0:31:34 | 0:31:38 | |
And that's when she took off from Ty, | 0:31:38 | 0:31:41 | |
and we were on a 20-minute chase | 0:31:41 | 0:31:43 | |
through Minot State fairground for her. | 0:31:43 | 0:31:45 | |
Ty had Queen. | 0:31:49 | 0:31:50 | |
He yelled for me to grab a chain, | 0:31:50 | 0:31:53 | |
I grabbed the chain out from underneath the truck, | 0:31:53 | 0:31:56 | |
put it around my neck, and we took off running. | 0:31:56 | 0:31:59 | |
She was trapped between some buildings, you know, wreaking havoc, | 0:31:59 | 0:32:03 | |
and I had to go in. | 0:32:03 | 0:32:05 | |
No-one but me. | 0:32:05 | 0:32:06 | |
He passed Queenie off to me, he started going toward the workshop. | 0:32:07 | 0:32:12 | |
And I just called her... | 0:32:12 | 0:32:14 | |
..real stern, got her attention the same way I always have, | 0:32:15 | 0:32:18 | |
no discipline, and opened up, and I knew I had to sacrifice myself. | 0:32:18 | 0:32:23 | |
I had to just show her. | 0:32:23 | 0:32:24 | |
No hook in hand. The hook was over here, but no hook in hand. | 0:32:24 | 0:32:27 | |
And she turned, ears flared out... | 0:32:28 | 0:32:31 | |
I just started thinking, "Bad." | 0:32:34 | 0:32:37 | |
I'm like, "Now I'm going to have to leave this elephant unattended, | 0:32:37 | 0:32:41 | |
"if he needs help." | 0:32:41 | 0:32:42 | |
To my surprise, she just walked right up to him. | 0:32:44 | 0:32:48 | |
She ran up to me like a big dog and just towered above me | 0:32:48 | 0:32:53 | |
and let me give her all of this love and hugs, | 0:32:53 | 0:32:56 | |
and inside, I am SCARED. | 0:32:56 | 0:32:58 | |
I am just... Heart beating because she just tried to kill someone. | 0:32:58 | 0:33:02 | |
And... | 0:33:02 | 0:33:03 | |
..to, I think, both our surprises, she didn't give us any problems. | 0:33:04 | 0:33:08 | |
She literally walked back to the picket line, | 0:33:08 | 0:33:11 | |
and we chained them both up. | 0:33:11 | 0:33:13 | |
That was the last time, | 0:33:13 | 0:33:15 | |
in July... July '93 was the last time I used her in a performance. | 0:33:15 | 0:33:20 | |
And I still had to go... | 0:33:20 | 0:33:22 | |
My contract ran through September, October. | 0:33:22 | 0:33:25 | |
But I wouldn't use her. | 0:33:28 | 0:33:29 | |
I used just the three, and despite Mr Cuneo and us battling, | 0:33:29 | 0:33:34 | |
I told him, "This elephant's going to kill someone." | 0:33:34 | 0:33:37 | |
I just felt like she should be in a sanctuary, a zoo, | 0:33:38 | 0:33:42 | |
or some type of establishment that's just going to let her be an elephant. | 0:33:42 | 0:33:46 | |
MUSIC: Maile Lau Li'l Li'l by Kalama's Quartet | 0:33:53 | 0:33:57 | |
FOGHORN | 0:34:09 | 0:34:11 | |
SEA BIRDS CAW | 0:34:16 | 0:34:20 | |
TRAFFIC RUMBLING | 0:34:30 | 0:34:34 | |
ELEPHANT TRUMPETS QUIETLY | 0:34:49 | 0:34:51 | |
Two days before I left Hawthorn, | 0:34:51 | 0:34:54 | |
Allen came into the barn | 0:34:54 | 0:34:56 | |
and I was working in there with the elephants, | 0:34:56 | 0:34:58 | |
and he was like, "Oh, if you work my Africans the way you work these, | 0:34:58 | 0:35:03 | |
"they'll be great." | 0:35:03 | 0:35:04 | |
I said, "Allen, I'm not going to be here." | 0:35:04 | 0:35:07 | |
He was like, "You'll be here." I said, "No, dude. | 0:35:07 | 0:35:11 | |
"I gotta go to Florida, I'm meeting up with Tyrone, we're doing Ringling." | 0:35:11 | 0:35:14 | |
I said, "The only thing I can really tell you is... | 0:35:15 | 0:35:18 | |
"she shouldn't be doing this. | 0:35:18 | 0:35:19 | |
"And you need to be careful." | 0:35:21 | 0:35:24 | |
And his last words to me before he walked out the barn was, | 0:35:25 | 0:35:29 | |
"Well, if she gets out of line, | 0:35:29 | 0:35:31 | |
"my Africans will get her back in line." | 0:35:31 | 0:35:33 | |
I said, "All right, I wish you the best, man." | 0:35:35 | 0:35:37 | |
And the last I heard about Allen was when I seen it on the news. | 0:35:37 | 0:35:41 | |
I told Allen not to take Tyke on the road | 0:35:45 | 0:35:48 | |
when he came to pick up that herd. | 0:35:48 | 0:35:50 | |
I told him, "You should leave Tyke behind." | 0:35:50 | 0:35:52 | |
He laughed. | 0:35:55 | 0:35:56 | |
Typical macho reaction. "Oh, no, I can handle it. | 0:35:56 | 0:36:02 | |
"I can get a handle on her." | 0:36:02 | 0:36:03 | |
Because he had the option. She could have stayed, | 0:36:05 | 0:36:07 | |
I could have put her in the bull barn... | 0:36:07 | 0:36:09 | |
..and she would have been fine, but that wasn't an option, | 0:36:11 | 0:36:14 | |
and the Hawthorn Corporation did not offer that as an option | 0:36:14 | 0:36:19 | |
to Allen, it was all or nothing, | 0:36:19 | 0:36:21 | |
because typically the bookings that the Hawthorn Corporation made | 0:36:21 | 0:36:27 | |
were for an act of so many elephants, | 0:36:27 | 0:36:30 | |
and if you didn't have that many elephants, | 0:36:30 | 0:36:32 | |
that contract wasn't going to be upheld. | 0:36:32 | 0:36:36 | |
And to Cuneo, they were there to make him money. | 0:36:37 | 0:36:41 | |
You know, and to me, money's not worth a life. | 0:36:43 | 0:36:46 | |
There's no amount of money that can repay a life. | 0:36:47 | 0:36:52 | |
So I think he should have been done had her off the road, | 0:36:53 | 0:36:58 | |
away from that. | 0:36:58 | 0:37:00 | |
But, you know, greed makes people do stupid things. | 0:37:00 | 0:37:03 | |
FLAMBOYANT GUITAR | 0:37:06 | 0:37:09 | |
WILD TRUMPETING | 0:37:09 | 0:37:12 | |
MC: Ladies and gentlemen, please remain seated. Please remain seated. | 0:37:23 | 0:37:27 | |
-PERSON FILMING: -Oh, my gosh! | 0:37:27 | 0:37:29 | |
Oh, my gosh! That's... | 0:37:31 | 0:37:32 | |
Oh, God! | 0:37:34 | 0:37:35 | |
Oh! | 0:37:37 | 0:37:38 | |
Oh, my gosh. | 0:37:40 | 0:37:42 | |
Oh, my gosh. | 0:37:44 | 0:37:45 | |
'Allen wasn't ever the focus. Allen was the by-product, | 0:37:47 | 0:37:50 | |
'he was the by-catch, he was collateral damage.' | 0:37:50 | 0:37:53 | |
She wanted to get rid of that groom. | 0:37:53 | 0:37:57 | |
Allen was trying to stop her. | 0:37:57 | 0:37:58 | |
She said, "You know, this isn't your fight. | 0:37:58 | 0:38:02 | |
"But if you're going to insist on it, I'm going to... | 0:38:02 | 0:38:05 | |
.."make sure you get out of my way | 0:38:06 | 0:38:08 | |
"so I can finish doing what I was doing." | 0:38:08 | 0:38:11 | |
CYMBALS AND SCREAMS | 0:38:11 | 0:38:12 | |
And then she stands, she's looking, | 0:38:14 | 0:38:16 | |
she's got her ears up. | 0:38:16 | 0:38:18 | |
I'm sure she's listening to the other elephants | 0:38:18 | 0:38:20 | |
that I'm sure are yelling in the background. | 0:38:20 | 0:38:23 | |
Even if you can't hear it on tape, | 0:38:23 | 0:38:24 | |
there's no doubt she's listening to the other elephants, | 0:38:24 | 0:38:27 | |
and she's trying to decide what she's going to do, | 0:38:27 | 0:38:30 | |
and then that guy moves, and it's just a hair that he moves, | 0:38:30 | 0:38:34 | |
but it's enough to bring her attention back to him. | 0:38:34 | 0:38:37 | |
SCREAMS AND CHILDREN CRYING | 0:38:37 | 0:38:39 | |
She didn't have a plan. | 0:38:41 | 0:38:43 | |
It's not like, "Well, I'm going to catch the bus," | 0:38:43 | 0:38:45 | |
or "I've got a waiting car for me that's going to speed me off, | 0:38:45 | 0:38:50 | |
"and we're going to live on the lam in Mexico," or anything. | 0:38:50 | 0:38:53 | |
She just... | 0:38:53 | 0:38:54 | |
The natural flight response triggered in her, | 0:38:55 | 0:38:59 | |
she knew she had to get out, and she wanted to get away from it all. | 0:38:59 | 0:39:02 | |
She wanted to get away from the noise, | 0:39:02 | 0:39:04 | |
the huge amounts of adrenaline | 0:39:04 | 0:39:08 | |
that were flowing everywhere, by that time, in the arena. | 0:39:08 | 0:39:10 | |
She knew she was in really big trouble, | 0:39:11 | 0:39:14 | |
and she knew she would have been chained up, | 0:39:14 | 0:39:17 | |
she would have been beaten a lot, and she said, | 0:39:17 | 0:39:21 | |
-"I'm going to get out of Dodge", -LOUD TRUMPETING | 0:39:21 | 0:39:24 | |
and took off. | 0:39:24 | 0:39:25 | |
MUSIC: Sanctus from Missa Luba by Guido Haazen | 0:39:26 | 0:39:30 | |
# Sanctus! | 0:39:31 | 0:39:36 | |
# Dominus Deus Sabaoth | 0:39:36 | 0:39:43 | |
# Dominus Deus | 0:39:43 | 0:39:47 | |
# Deus Sabaoth | 0:39:47 | 0:39:52 | |
# Sanctus | 0:39:52 | 0:39:56 | |
# Sanctus! | 0:39:57 | 0:40:02 | |
# Sanctus | 0:40:03 | 0:40:06 | |
SIRENS WAIL | 0:40:06 | 0:40:07 | |
# Sanctus. # | 0:40:07 | 0:40:12 | |
SIRENS WAIL | 0:40:32 | 0:40:34 | |
GUNSHOTS | 0:40:34 | 0:40:36 | |
GUNSHOTS | 0:40:43 | 0:40:46 | |
GUNSHOTS | 0:40:49 | 0:40:53 | |
She was shot 87 times. | 0:41:07 | 0:41:11 | |
She was shot all over her body, in her eyes, | 0:41:11 | 0:41:15 | |
and I remembered that huge head, | 0:41:15 | 0:41:20 | |
just leaning against the car. | 0:41:20 | 0:41:25 | |
It was heartbreaking to see such a majestic creature, | 0:41:30 | 0:41:36 | |
such a beautiful, huge, gorgeous elephant, | 0:41:36 | 0:41:39 | |
lying in the street of Honolulu. | 0:41:42 | 0:41:44 | |
Lying... Just lying on the street of Honolulu, | 0:41:44 | 0:41:47 | |
with that ridiculous pink party hat on. | 0:41:47 | 0:41:50 | |
NEWSREADER: 'A family placed leis right near the spot where | 0:42:11 | 0:42:14 | |
'Tyke fell to her death. | 0:42:14 | 0:42:16 | |
'Animal rights groups had a memorial service for Tyke | 0:42:16 | 0:42:19 | |
'right where the female African elephant was shot down.' | 0:42:19 | 0:42:23 | |
'Supporters of Animal Rights Hawaii returned to the site | 0:42:23 | 0:42:25 | |
'where circus elephant Tyke was gunned down. | 0:42:25 | 0:42:28 | |
'The president of the group says the elephant is not to | 0:42:28 | 0:42:31 | |
'blame for the tragedy - she blames what she says | 0:42:31 | 0:42:34 | |
'is the inhumane treatment most circus animals receive.' | 0:42:34 | 0:42:38 | |
They're shackled often 22 out of 24 hours, | 0:42:38 | 0:42:42 | |
are routinely deprived of food and water, | 0:42:42 | 0:42:44 | |
made to wear stupid costumes, | 0:42:44 | 0:42:46 | |
and this is considered wholesome family fun? | 0:42:46 | 0:42:50 | |
In the days following her death, we worked very quickly | 0:42:50 | 0:42:54 | |
and rescheduled our demonstrations. | 0:42:54 | 0:42:58 | |
We could see that this had really made a difference. | 0:42:58 | 0:43:02 | |
So we decided that we would go forward | 0:43:02 | 0:43:06 | |
and try to make sure that this could not happen again. | 0:43:06 | 0:43:10 | |
NEWSREADER: 'Animal rights groups nationwide are speaking out | 0:43:12 | 0:43:15 | |
'about the circus incident. | 0:43:15 | 0:43:16 | |
'Acting mayor Jeremy Harris today said he is thinking | 0:43:16 | 0:43:19 | |
'about banning any circuses featuring animal acts from city facilities.' | 0:43:19 | 0:43:23 | |
The Tyke incident was an international incident. | 0:43:24 | 0:43:28 | |
This was going to affect circuses worldwide, | 0:43:28 | 0:43:30 | |
this was going to have an impact, we thought, from the beginning - | 0:43:30 | 0:43:33 | |
not only on the smaller city councils in the United States, | 0:43:33 | 0:43:38 | |
but all across the world, for that matter. | 0:43:38 | 0:43:40 | |
Don't blame the circus! | 0:43:49 | 0:43:51 | |
I helped organise counterdemonstrations | 0:43:53 | 0:43:56 | |
against animal activist groups. | 0:43:56 | 0:43:58 | |
Initially, we did have to pay various individuals to come out | 0:43:58 | 0:44:02 | |
because we needed to have groups of people that would at least be | 0:44:02 | 0:44:06 | |
able to get the attention of the public, to show that there were | 0:44:06 | 0:44:09 | |
individuals that were supporting the circus. | 0:44:09 | 0:44:12 | |
The animal rights activists, just ignore them, have a great time. | 0:44:12 | 0:44:16 | |
And you can take it and throw it right in the garbage where it belongs! | 0:44:16 | 0:44:19 | |
Have a good time. | 0:44:19 | 0:44:21 | |
I met the vice president of Ringling Brothers, | 0:44:41 | 0:44:44 | |
and he said, "Steve, we're going to need you to go over to Hawaii | 0:44:44 | 0:44:46 | |
"right away to deal with the fallout | 0:44:46 | 0:44:49 | |
"from this particular accident, and at the same time, too, | 0:44:49 | 0:44:52 | |
"deal immediately with the City Council", | 0:44:52 | 0:44:55 | |
considering the fact that the animal activist groups | 0:44:55 | 0:44:57 | |
wanted to ban use of animals as entertainment | 0:44:57 | 0:45:01 | |
immediately after this incident happened. | 0:45:01 | 0:45:03 | |
Chairman Felix, members of the committee. | 0:45:07 | 0:45:09 | |
The animals most commonly used in circuses | 0:45:09 | 0:45:12 | |
and other travelling animal acts are wild and can behave instinctively | 0:45:12 | 0:45:16 | |
and unpredictably. If they become out of control, they are further | 0:45:16 | 0:45:20 | |
punished up to and including death, as we experienced with Tyke. | 0:45:20 | 0:45:23 | |
Prior to this event, our animal-related position | 0:45:23 | 0:45:26 | |
had been that animals that are used in entertainment, | 0:45:26 | 0:45:32 | |
or, whether they be domestic or wild animals | 0:45:32 | 0:45:36 | |
that are used in entertainment, they should be treated humanely. | 0:45:36 | 0:45:39 | |
That was our position. | 0:45:39 | 0:45:42 | |
And after the Tyke incident and re-looking at our position statement, | 0:45:42 | 0:45:47 | |
we really came to the conclusion that you couldn't | 0:45:47 | 0:45:52 | |
treat a wild animal humanely in the entertainment business. | 0:45:52 | 0:45:56 | |
The circus industry will tell you that they are | 0:45:58 | 0:46:01 | |
"repositories of endangered species". | 0:46:01 | 0:46:03 | |
USDA inspection records of John Cuneo's elephants | 0:46:03 | 0:46:07 | |
show a dearth of even the most basic husbandry records. | 0:46:07 | 0:46:11 | |
They will boast that their animals perform because they "like to". | 0:46:11 | 0:46:14 | |
'I remember them as if it were yesterday.' | 0:46:14 | 0:46:17 | |
Cathy Goeggel, the ringleader, I'd say, of Animal Rights Hawaii, | 0:46:17 | 0:46:23 | |
was a nasty individual. | 0:46:23 | 0:46:25 | |
She was not someone you could talk with, or reason with. | 0:46:25 | 0:46:29 | |
She had a one-track mind and that was to lash out against anybody | 0:46:29 | 0:46:34 | |
that was opposed to their point of view. | 0:46:34 | 0:46:37 | |
It was outrageous. | 0:46:37 | 0:46:39 | |
The industry, the circus industry employs people to say that | 0:46:40 | 0:46:47 | |
everything is wonderful, everything is great. | 0:46:47 | 0:46:50 | |
The elephants LOVE doing what they're doing | 0:46:51 | 0:46:55 | |
and it's like the emperor has no clothes. | 0:46:55 | 0:46:58 | |
These animals are all trained through positive reinforcement. | 0:46:58 | 0:47:02 | |
There's a lot of misconceptions on how you get an animal | 0:47:02 | 0:47:05 | |
to perform a certain act. | 0:47:05 | 0:47:06 | |
When an elephant stands on its hind legs, | 0:47:06 | 0:47:08 | |
this is something it does naturally in the wild. | 0:47:08 | 0:47:11 | |
They reach branches off trees, they also sit on their hind legs | 0:47:11 | 0:47:15 | |
when they are engaging in the act of sex. | 0:47:15 | 0:47:18 | |
The facts remain that the animals don't do anything other | 0:47:18 | 0:47:22 | |
than what they do in the wild and this is incorporated into the acts. | 0:47:22 | 0:47:26 | |
Well...I would say that it involved a lot of money | 0:47:33 | 0:47:40 | |
and it's a business and the argument that, well, | 0:47:40 | 0:47:44 | |
it only happened one time, might have prevailed. | 0:47:44 | 0:47:47 | |
But on the other hand, | 0:47:47 | 0:47:48 | |
we've never had another elephant come into this community. | 0:47:48 | 0:47:52 | |
So, bill or no bill, legislation or no legislation, the outcome was | 0:47:52 | 0:47:57 | |
and has been that there has been no elephant coming back. | 0:47:57 | 0:48:00 | |
We have not had live circuses with wild animals allowed here. | 0:48:00 | 0:48:05 | |
We agreed to take Nicholas and Gypsy, | 0:48:33 | 0:48:36 | |
the two last elephants that were at the Hawthorn Corporation's place | 0:48:36 | 0:48:42 | |
in Illinois, the same place where Tyke came from. | 0:48:42 | 0:48:46 | |
'If you guys want take off, you can go ahead now.' | 0:48:46 | 0:48:48 | |
Sometimes elephants come in, they don't know even that you can eat the grass, | 0:48:49 | 0:48:55 | |
that that's even an option, because a lot of elephants in captivity | 0:48:55 | 0:48:59 | |
have never been able to walk on grass. | 0:48:59 | 0:49:01 | |
This is Nicholas, and behind me is Gypsy. | 0:49:03 | 0:49:08 | |
Former circus elephants from Hawthorn Corporation. | 0:49:08 | 0:49:12 | |
Her whole life is different, you know. | 0:49:13 | 0:49:15 | |
If she wants to go in the lake, she can go in the lake. | 0:49:15 | 0:49:18 | |
If she wants to scratch on a tree, she can scratch on a tree. | 0:49:18 | 0:49:21 | |
If she wants to dig her own mud hole, she can dig her own mud hole and roll in it. | 0:49:21 | 0:49:25 | |
Tyke could have been right next to her. | 0:49:27 | 0:49:30 | |
Tyke should have never been in the circus. | 0:49:30 | 0:49:33 | |
Ty and Tyke, they had some kind of special connection. | 0:49:55 | 0:49:59 | |
We used to walk in that barn in the morning, | 0:49:59 | 0:50:02 | |
and he would walk up to that elephant | 0:50:02 | 0:50:05 | |
and be like, "Africa!" | 0:50:05 | 0:50:08 | |
She would lift her head up and rumble | 0:50:08 | 0:50:11 | |
and it was just... Just watching it, I could see the connection. | 0:50:11 | 0:50:17 | |
I loved that elephant. | 0:50:20 | 0:50:22 | |
There's something about her that I connected with. | 0:50:22 | 0:50:25 | |
I liked the way she showed me her affection, she'd stand above me | 0:50:25 | 0:50:29 | |
and I'm 6'3 and this elephant's standing | 0:50:29 | 0:50:32 | |
and I'm looking up at the top, underneath her chin, | 0:50:32 | 0:50:35 | |
when she's stood above me and she let me hug her neck | 0:50:35 | 0:50:38 | |
and hug her and she just let me be around her. | 0:50:38 | 0:50:42 | |
So that's what I loved most about her, she let me be around her. | 0:50:42 | 0:50:45 | |
There's nothing better than being hugged by an elephant. | 0:50:49 | 0:50:52 | |
It's just the most wonderful, warm... When they take their trunk | 0:50:52 | 0:50:57 | |
and blow against your face and they wrap their trunk around you, it's fabulous. Wonderful. | 0:50:57 | 0:51:03 | |
But those days are gone. | 0:51:03 | 0:51:09 | |
If I could have worked elephants without all the brutality, | 0:51:09 | 0:51:14 | |
oh, that would have been fabulous. Absolutely fabulous. | 0:51:14 | 0:51:18 | |
And when I look back, | 0:51:18 | 0:51:20 | |
I said I'm sure there's a special place in hell for me | 0:51:20 | 0:51:24 | |
for what I did to the elephants, because that was what | 0:51:24 | 0:51:28 | |
I was told I had to do to stay alive, to keep those elephants in line. | 0:51:28 | 0:51:33 | |
But now I know that was all nonsense. | 0:51:33 | 0:51:38 | |
I'm probably the most critical person of all of our place here. | 0:51:51 | 0:51:56 | |
Because I don't drive through here and think, | 0:51:56 | 0:51:58 | |
"Oh, how nice it is that they are eating grass". | 0:51:58 | 0:52:00 | |
I drive through and think, "Why are they behind a fence?" | 0:52:00 | 0:52:03 | |
You know, our philosophy is that elephants are not | 0:52:05 | 0:52:10 | |
designed for captivity at all. | 0:52:10 | 0:52:13 | |
And you can do what you can for them, | 0:52:15 | 0:52:17 | |
but you'll never match what they should have | 0:52:17 | 0:52:19 | |
if they were in the wild. | 0:52:19 | 0:52:21 | |
People say, "What do you think went wrong? What went wrong? | 0:52:39 | 0:52:42 | |
"Why did Tyke do such an unnatural thing?" | 0:52:42 | 0:52:45 | |
That's the first natural thing that Tyke did in her life, was to run. | 0:52:45 | 0:52:50 | |
She did it in Altoona, she injured people in North Dakota | 0:52:50 | 0:52:56 | |
and finally in Hawaii, she acted like a real elephant and said, | 0:52:56 | 0:53:01 | |
"I'm not supposed to be here. I'm tired," | 0:53:01 | 0:53:04 | |
and on that final day of her life, | 0:53:04 | 0:53:07 | |
exhibited real elephant behaviour, | 0:53:07 | 0:53:09 | |
and it didn't fit the streets of Hawaii. | 0:53:09 | 0:53:12 |