It’s not every day you see three fully grown elephants on the loose, wreaking havoc on parked cars and people. But that was the reality which faced the people of St. Louis on Saturday, after the circus elephants escaped and roamed around a car park.
The elephants were on the loose for a good few minutes after handlers lost control of them. The incident took place around the time of the circus’ 5 pm performance. It was reported that the elephants that escaped from the Moolah Shrine Circus were all female.
Sally Schmiz, who was a spectator at the circus, told reporters : “Things started shaking, [and] when I looked up I saw three elephants coming towards us. These huge elephants literally went through RVs. Then they went through two-trucks, breaking mirrors and panels off and breaking the windows,” she revealed.
Thankfully, nobody was injured during the mini-rampage as Schmiz noted: “Thank God no children were on top of them for rides, or adults too. You could tell they were upset.”
Denni Kelley, the President of Moolah Shriners Circus, said about the incident: “The elephants were loose for a brief period. The handlers were able to occupy the animals and they are resting comfortably at this time.”
What makes the fact that the elephants escaped from the circus even more scary is that the elephants in question were all specially trained so children could ride them. Fortunately no children were on them at the time.
It remains to be seen whether or not the circus owners will allow the three elephants to perform in shows taking place in the immediate future, as they try to ascertain what caused the elephants to escape the circus.
Here are some Tweets regarding the elephants who escaped from the circus on Saturday:
MUST SEE: Circus elephants escaped in Missouri and damaged a bunch of cars: http://t.co/FC10M30uKb #7news pic.twitter.com/tbN0kwTcKh
— 7News Boston (@7News) March 24, 2014
Circus elephants make a break for it http://t.co/rh5EPVVvZx
— HuffPost Weird News (@HuffPostWeird) March 23, 2014
Elephants escape from circus, go on car trampling rampage http://t.co/q3LvL9Zwz5 via @dailymailus
— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) March 23, 2014
Circus elephants escaped and trampled some cars? Well, when you hold intelligent creatures hostage as performers… http://t.co/tgKzT4pkvp
— Caitlin Doughty (@TheGoodDeath) March 23, 2014