![]() Stewart advised: “Here’s what you are going to see: The trainer will have control of the elephant only because it couldn’t get off the dock – the only reason it wasn’t in the streets of Altoona. The head of the local humane society called Stewart the day of the incident, explaining what happened and basically asked, “What do I do?” “She called out for help in Altoona, and nobody did anything about it.” “She should be retired somewhere now, instead of dead,” Stewart said. They are scouring western Pennsylvania for any video or home movies of the Altoona incident and are asking people to contact them at if they have any footage.Įd Stewart, co-founder of the nonprofit Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS), is still baffled, 21 years later, that Tyke continued to perform after the Altoona incident. They all worked for Jumping Dog Productions near Sydney. Lambert and Stefan Moore produced and directed the film, “Tyke: Elephant Outlaw,” and Megan McMurchy co-produced it. “So many people were affected by her life,” said Susan Lambert, one of the project’s producer/directors, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Nearly 4,000 schoolchildren attending the circus evacuated the building.Īn Australian documentary due out next year charts Tyke’s story, showing news footage and interviews with many of the people who worked with the elephant. ![]() She paced in front of the center for about an hour until circus workers coaxed her back inside. No one was hurt in Altoona when Tyke ripped away part of a doorway wall while exiting the Jaffa Shrine Center (then the Jaffa Mosque) in April 1993 during a circus performance. Regarding Tyke, he said: “The company probably could have used better judgment.” But he noted that other trainers might disagree with him. “He was dear friend of mine,” Arthurs said.Ī former employee of Hawthorn Corp., which owned Tyke, Arthurs had stopped working for Hawthorn because of an “internal dispute.” He was careful to say that to attribute the issue surrounding Tyke to his departure would be taking it out of context.
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