Elephant That Killed Her Trainer Had Gone On Rampage Before

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.

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.

The elephant barreled down a city street before being killed by police gunfire.

Hawaii state officials said an examination showed no illness that would explain her violent behavior.

Circus International owner Ed Migley said here yesterday that the elephant "had all the tendencies of a killer."

"It was a mistake for Tyke to be presented in a circus," he said.

After 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.

After 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.

Tyke was owned by John Cuneo Jr., president of Hawthorn Corp., which operates an animal-training farm near Richmond, Ill.

"We asked what would happen to the elephant" after the Altoona circus incident, Grace said. "They said it would go back to Richmond and be put out to pasture."

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. The lawsuit claims physical and emotional injury and distress.