The description below the video states that, prior to the electrocution, the elephant was fed carrots laced with over a pound of cyanide.
I am reminded of the assassination of Grigori Rasputin, who was fed cakes and wine laced with cyanide, but ultimately had to be shot multiple times before being dumped into th Malaya Nevka River in St. Petersburg.
I have no idea if it really needed to be killed or not.
Supposedly, Topsy had killed one James Fielding Blount, a circus spectator / trespasser who harassed the elephant with a lit cigar on her trunk.
“Supposedly, Topsy had killed one James Fielding Blount, a circus spectator / trespasser who harassed the elephant with a lit cigar on her trunk.”
Yeah - I got that. Seems to me he had it coming. But that part about Topsy being a threat to all people after that - I suppose he might have been. My aunt’s dog hated all men - he was beaten by one. When I was a boy we had lots of fun and she was fine with me. I came home from college, was visiting and she growled and nipped at my heals!
As I understand it, Rasputin’s cause of death was drowning - the bullets didn’t even do it. May be an urban legend...