Circus elephant, 58, causes chaos in Montana town after slipping her handlers

An elephant escaped from a traveling circus and wandered through the streets of Butte, Montana, on Tuesday, stopping traffic, knocking over a fence, and defecating in someone’s yard.

The elephant, reportedly a 58-year-old Asian elephant named Viola, was in the parking lot of the city’s civic centre being washed ahead of a Tuesday night performance with the Jordan World Circus, when a backfiring car spooked the massive animal, sending her running, Civic Center manager Bill Melvin told KXLY .

A bystander named Brittany McGinnis recorded a video of the elephant running across the busy Harrison Avenue and into the parking lot of a casino with a handler in pursuit.

“An elephant walking down the road. Oh my god,” she can be heard saying in the video. “Only in Butte. A circus elephant got loose.”

The escape only lasted about 10 minutes , and the elephant’s handlers corralled her back to safety, with neither the animal nor any people sustaining injuries.

“The circus, of course, is very professional, and they had a professional trainer and he was real calm and the animal was calm and they were able to get her right back,” Mr Melvin told the Daily Montanan . “It was not nearly as dramatic as you would think.”

The outlet also reported that the elephant that got lose was a different specimen named Tola.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) released a statement on Tuesday, condemning the incident and accusing the circus and its reported animal supplier, Carson & Barnes Circus, of overworking Viola, who it said has escaped multiple times in the past.

The Independent has contacted Jordan World Circus and Carson & Barnes Circus for comment.