The sound of a backfiring vehicle frightened a circus elephant while she was taking a pre-show bath in Butte, Mont., leading the pachyderm to climb over a fence and take a brief stroll, stopping the midday traffic on the city’s busiest street before being recharged. in a trailer.
Viola, an Asian elephant from the Jordan World Circus, appeared in two more performances Tuesday after her time on the run in the southwest Montana town of about 35,000 that in the late 1800s was the largest copper producing region in the world.
Viola was taking a bath behind the Butte Civic Center shortly after noon Tuesday when she was surprised, Civic Center Director Bill Melvin said.
She drove through a “kind of wank” fence and headed onto Harrison Avenue, a four-lane street, stopping traffic and forcing people to pull out their cellphones to take photos and videos.
Olivia LaBeau, 21, was heading home from a coffee run when the elephant wandered into oncoming traffic. A car began to back up and LeBeau stopped his car as the elephant casually walked toward the other side of the road.
“I kind of had to do a double take,” she said. “I thought I saw things.”
She took a video of the elephant.
“I had to take out my phone because I think if I had told anyone, they wouldn’t have believed me,” she said. “It’s a very absurd thing to see in Montana.”
Viola walked about half a block down the road before heading into the parking lot of a convenience store and casino, Melvin said.
Town Pump surveillance cameras captured footage from multiple angles of the elephant walking down the street in front of the building and trudging across the parking lot with a trainer at its side. She then moved to a residential lawn where she began eating grass.
The circus people drove a caravan with another elephant inside, Melvin said. They “put the ramp down and she came right back and that was it.”
“The other elephant was very happy to see her,” Melvin said.
About 10 minutes passed between the time she was startled and her return to the trailer, he said.
“She came back and she performed last night and everything was fine,” Melvin said. “I mean, the show went on, as they say.”
At least two animal rights groups – People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and Compassion Works International – criticized the incident, saying it endangered the elephant and the public and could have been avoided if circuses hadn’t forced animals to perform.
Viola and the Jordan World Circus will perform Wednesday in Helena, the state capital.
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Dupuy reported from New York; AP reporter Sarah Brumfield contributed from Silver Spring, Maryland.
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This story has been corrected to show that the elephant occurred on Tuesday, not Monday.
ABC News
