10 Shocking Incidents Involving Zoo and Circus Animals

While we occasionally hear about disturbing incidents at a zoo or circus, many times involving an animal on the loose or a patron who wanders into an animal’s habitat, some of these stories are particularly strange or shocking. The circumstances surrounding such incidents can be as surprising as the event itself, including the use of underaged people to work with dangerous animals in potentially unsafe conditions. Other events may result from recklessness or simply a bizarre accident that no one could have anticipated. These are 10 of the most shocking incidents that have taken place involving zoo and circus animals.

Related: 10 Amazing Animal Tales from the Ancient World

10 Richard McCormick and Harry the Hippo

There was a time when it was common for British zoos to employ untrained teens to work closely with animals. With the rise of small zoos in the 20th century, many young people had the opportunity to embark on interesting and potentially dangerous zoo-keeping jobs.

Soon after leaving school in 1966, Richard McCormick found an enjoyable gig working with animals at the Whitley Zoo in his hometown of Coventry, England. Initially, he took care of the parrots, but a few weeks later, he had already been tasked with looking after much bigger, more imposing animals, including bears, elephants, and Harry the hippo. “It was fabulous until the accident,” McCormick was quoted as saying in a 2017 BBC article.

One day, he went to clean the hippo’s cage, but the safety barrier was broken. A heavy door then struck the animal on the backside, provoking him to go after the young man, clenching McCormick’s head between his jaws and dragging him to the hippo’s pool. Luckily, a tusk had recently been removed after Harry had contracted a toothache.

According to McCormick, the tusk would have torn through his body if it hadn’t been extracted. When the head zookeeper heard McCormick screaming, he came to the rescue, hitting the hippo with an iron bar which caused Harry to open his mouth, allowing McCormick to escape. He came away from the terrifying attack with a broken collar bone and ribs as well as a punctured liver and lifelong hippo teeth marks on one side of his body.^[1]

9 Monkeys Libby and Sunday

Even though no one appeared to be physically harmed when a woman, later identified as Luz Elizabeth Rae, climbed into a spider monkey enclosure at the El Paso Zoo in May 2021, it was still a shocking and disturbing incident for many different reasons. Something easily could have gone wrong when Rae entered this restricted area and attempted to hand feed two monkeys Hot Cheetos. In the video footage, which went viral, we can see that the monkeys seem to feel upset and threatened by Luz after she invaded their territory.

In an interview with Newsweek, zoo director Joe Montisano explained, “As mild-mannered as some of our animals appear, they are still wild animals and react that way.”

In addition to risking her own safety, an incident like this can have a long-term impact on the animals. In this case, it can possibly undermine trust between the monkeys and their trainers, which had taken years to build, according to zookeeper Mason Kleist, who thought It would “take a long time to get them back to where they were and training.”

The type of food Rae was offering the monkeys was also an issue. Since Libby and Sunday were on a special diet, feeding them something like Hot Cheetos could have caused digestive issues.^[2]

8 Glenys Newton

When Glenys Newton was five years old in 1969, a fun family outing driving through the Longleat Safari Park in Wiltshire, England, quickly took a dangerous turn. The children and adults, which made up a group of nine, were packed into her uncle’s car, with Glenys sitting on the lap of her father in the driver’s seat.

They parked at a lion enclosure where one particularly large lion sat next to the window as if waiting to be petted. While the grown-ups were occupied with their own conversation, little Glenys started rolling down the window. Her father, displaying uncharacteristic fear, quickly moved to roll the window back up, but the lion let out a roar. This prompted excitement among the big cats, about half a dozen of which began climbing on the car, shaking the vehicle, and puncturing tires. Her father’s honking eventually brought the rangers around.

Though Glenyss’ brother remembers this incident as the first time he saw adults frightened, the little girl was at ease until she thought the rangers had killed her new animal friends with what turned out to just be tranquilizer guns.^[3]

7 Elephant Duo Debbie and Frieda

Clyde-Beatty Cole Brothers Circus elephants Debbie and Frieda were involved in more than one shocking incident. In 1985, the rebellious duo were in a line of elephants that were spooked by the honking of an impatient driver outside the North Hanover Mall in Hanover, Pennsylvania.

During the ensuing disturbance, which almost turned into a riot, Debbie and Frieda walked away from the other elephants in the parking lot. They embarked on a destructive path, damaging multiple vehicles and crashing through a large plate glass window at a Sears Auto Service Center. A scuffle between Frieda and Debbie a few months later at a performance in a Queen’s New York parking lot resulted in 12 people being injured.^[4]

6 Naked Man in a Lion Enclosure

One of the most bizarre incidents involving zoo animals was undoubtedly something that occurred in 2016 at the Santiago Metropolitan Zoo in Chile. An apparently suicidal 20-year-old man climbed into a lion enclosure, stripped off his clothing, and proceeded to approach the big cats. The man, who was thought to be suffering from mental health issues, left behind a “suicide note” in his clothing, and some witnesses heard him shouting religious proclamations, according to the BBC.

Members of the crowd looked on as he was mauled by a male and female lion, which were subsequently shot and killed by zoo staff to protect the naked man who was reportedly shot with a tranquilizer dart. He was seriously injured and hospitalized as a result of the altercation with the lions, which was caught on video.^[5]

5 Juma the Jaguar

The 2016 Summer Olympics, which took place in Rio De Janeiro, was dampened by a series of tragedies. Not only did people working on Olympic-related projects lose their lives in different incidents, but the killing of a jaguar who was being used in a controversial photo shoot received a lot of media attention, sparking widespread outrage.

Juma was representing the team’s cartoon jaguar mascot, but using her at this event was later determined to be illegal. She seemed calm as she sat chained during the photographed torch ceremony in Manaus, but she later displayed agitated behavior and got loose from her handlers. Remaining awake after being hit with four tranquilizers, Juma was ultimately shot and killed when she approached a soldier. The photo op, which took place at the military zoo where Juma lived, was ironic for various reasons.

In a statement, the local organizing committee said: “We made a mistake in permitting the Olympic torch, a symbol of peace and unity, to be exhibited alongside a chained wild animal.” Another obvious irony of this incident was that a jaguar was chosen as Team Rio’s mascot to draw attention to conservation work being done to protect animals.

Some believe the noise, together with the flame and the large number of people surrounding Juma, could have been what set her off.^[6]

4 Petting Zoo Disaster

Even animals that are supposedly safe for interaction with the public can sometimes behave in troubling ways. One of the most shocking examples is something that happened in 1989 at the Southwest Florida Fair in Fort Myers, Florida. A ride elephant Kelly/Janet escaped from a traveling petting zoo while she was carrying three riders, including a four-year-old child.

After tearing through a crowded midway, the elephant went into a lake, where the riders fell off. However, this wasn’t the end of Kelly/Janet’s shenanigans. She leaped out of the lake and continued onward, smashing into additional concession stands before finally being caught by a caretaker and put back in the corral. The incident resulted in at least eight people being injured.^[7]

3 Janet Coghlan

Decades after surviving an attack by a Bengal tigress cub while working at Seaburn Zoo in Sunderland, England, Janet Coghlan remembered how restless the tigers would get being caged up in a former pool and railway carriage. Coghlan, who later advocated against keeping animals in captivity, sympathized with the zoo animals being held in tiny cages located in the former ocean park.

One day in 1978, when she was helping to clean out a tiger pit, she was asked to hold open the gate while the owner’s wife brought out a cub named Meena on a chain. “The tiger had been penned up for goodness knows how long, and as she came out, she reared up on her back legs like a dog being brought out for a walk.”

Coghlan fell into the mud after the cub lunged onto her, and the animal started clawing her, ripping open one side of her face. The wound ran from the young girl’s cheek, below her eye, to her jaw. She required 250 stitches on her face and head. It could have been worse. She didn’t expect to get away, but amazing as it sounds, the cub was just playing, in Coghlan’s opinion.

Another surprising detail is that Coghlan did not really experience pain during this swift attack. Though her parents were understandably “horrified” by what had happened to her, they did not file charges against the owners. However, the zoo wasn’t in business much longer.^[8]

2 Frieda the Elephant

All sorts of things could cause a circus animal to display violent or erratic behavior. In addition to experiencing abuse, sudden noises or actions of those around the animal could provoke them to run amok. The reckless actions of a spectator can also have dangerous consequences. Frieda the elephant had a reputation for the rampages she engaged in, either independently or with animal cohorts, which sometimes led to tragedy.

However, one incident that took place in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in 1983 seems to have been provoked by the brashness of a patron named John Marshall, who first attempted to pet a lion.

After being chased away by a circus employee, Marshall continued his high jinks in the elephants’ holding area, where he blew into Frieda’s trunk, and she turned violent. Luckier than some of Frieda’s victims, Marshall survived but suffered numerous broken bones and trauma when Frieda reacted to the stunt by grabbing and throwing him.^[9]

1 Tyke the Elephant

By the time a Circus International elephant named Tyke killed her trainer, Allen Campbell, and seriously injured a groomer at a 1994 show in Honolulu, she had repeatedly attempted to escape during performances in other cities, leading her to be dubbed an “outlaw” in a documentary about her. Though people had been injured during these escapes, this was the first recorded fatality, and the panic that ran through the shocked crowd led to more injuries among spectators.

One thing that makes this story unique is that the elephant’s destructive actions extended beyond the scene of the accident. Tyke got loose, running through the streets of downtown Honolulu in heavy traffic, continuing a rampage that led her to smash vehicles and chase pedestrians.

The crisis came to a halt when police shot and killed her, firing a total of 87 bullets into the 20-year-old female African bush elephant. While the loss of life, injuries, and mental trauma resulting from the catastrophe are very troubling, the story is not as clear-cut as it may seem. Campbell had been repeatedly accused of abusing animals. Hawaii News Now pointed out that Tyke’s “behavior raised concerns about the treatment and management of circus animals, with allegations of abuse surfacing.”^[10]