Animal rights body to picket runaway elephant’s circus

Animal rights groups plan to picket the circus from which an elephant escaped before going walkabout in a Cork City car park.

The picket by Animal Rights Action Network will take place on Saturday at the Courtney Brothers circus’ last night at the former Sunbeam factory site.

Shoppers were shocked at about 4.30pm on Tuesday when the 40-year-old female Indian elephant, Baby, broke away from her enclosure and made her way to a car park before charging on to a busy interchange near a shopping centre in Blackpool, on Cork’s northside, with two handlers running behind. It is understood she ran away as she did not like being hosed down.