Will She Run Amok Again? Elephant Who Fled Through Butte Streets Back in Town
Almost exactly two years after Viola the elephant bolted through Butte’s streets in an attempt to escape her abusers at Jordan World Circus, the elderly elephant dubbed the “Most Desperate Elephant in the World” is being hauled back to town and forced to perform at the Butte Civic Center on Tuesday. The April 2024 escape was one of at least four times during her five decades of captivity under Carson & Barnes Circus—which supplies elephants to Jordan World Circus—that Viola has fled her captors. PETA supporters will deploy a 20-foot-tall “crying elephant” along with signs reading, “Chained. Beaten. Desperate. Free Viola the Elephant,” outside to urge Jordan World Circus to end its cruel animal acts.
“While some people run away to join the circus, Viola the elephant keeps trying to run away from the circus, where she’s spent a lifetime suffering in chains and servitude,” says PETA President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is calling on Jordan World Circus to end these archaic and cruel animal acts, and for everyone to stay away until they do.”
Viola was taken from her home and family in Asia as a baby and, at 56 years old, is forced to perform grueling and painful tricks in shows, even while suffering from chronically swollen feet and other painful, debilitating ailments.
Where: Butte Civic Center, 1340 Harrison Ave. (at the Corner of Civic Center Road), Butte
When: Tuesday, April 14, 3:30 p.m.
Why: In nature, elephants live in matriarchal herds, protect one another, and share mothering responsibilities for the herds’ babies. Video footage shows the head trainer for Carson & Barnes Circus—which has been cited for nearly 150 violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act—instructing trainers to sink sharp, steel-tipped bullhooks into elephants’ flesh and twist them until the animals scream.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
