Tyke Elephant Outlaw is a gripping and emotionally charged documentary about one elephant’s break for freedom and the profound questions it raised about our connection to other species. Tyke Elephant Outlaw is expected to be as dismantling to the circus industry as Blackfish was to SeaWorld and ensure that more people question the support of using animals as forms of entertainment when they suffer so greatly.
Tyke Elephant Outlaw: Available to Watch Now on Netflix
This is the gripping and emotionally charged story of Tyke, a circus elephant who went on a rampage in Honolulu in August 1994, killed her trainer in front of thousands of spectators and was then killed in a violent hail of gunfire. Her desperate break for freedom—filmed from start to tragic end—traumatised a city and ignited a global battle over the use of animals in the entertainment industry. Looking at what made Tyke snap, the film goes back to meet the people who knew her and were affected by her death—former trainers and handlers, circus industry insiders, witnesses to her rampage, and animal rights activists for whom Tyke became a global rallying cry.
Like the classic animal rebellion film King Kong, Tyke is the central protagonist in a tragic real life heart break that raises deep fundamental questions about the use of animals and how they suffer at human hands.
Heart breaking film…and it’s the start of some larger, and important, conversations about the way we tolerate animal cruelty for our own amusement.
Paste Magazine
Tyke Elephant Outlaw’s Impact
The Hawaiian government has made a positive move just three days after Type Elephant Outlaw made its Hawaii premiere. Hawaii likely will become the first US state to ban the use of elephants, bears and other exotic wild animals for entertainment purposes.
The Hawaii Department of Agriculture board on 1st December 2015 unanimously approved a proposed rules change that would define “dangerous wild animals” and prohibit the import of such animals “for exhibition or performance in public entertainment shows such as circuses, carnivals and state fairs.” The rules make exceptions for commercial filming in television or movies and in government zoos. Animals listed in the proposal include big cats, primates, elephants, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, bears, hyenas and crocodiles.