The Saint Paul globe., 1904-01-25
ENRAGFD ELEPHANT
ATTACKS KEEPER
While Suffering From Frozen
Ears She InfIicts Injuries
That May Prove Fatal.

Crazed with pain from frozen ears,
Pezitta the pet elephant of the Hagen
beck show, turned upon her keeper
yesterday morning and inflicted
wounds from which the man may die.
Several broken ribs and one lung
punctured are the extent of the injur-
les received by the keeper, Conrad
Kastens, and it is thought the injuries
will prove fatal. Kastens is being car
ed for at st. Joseph's hospital.
The Hagenbeck show closed week 8
engagement at the Grand Saturday
night, and early yesterday morning the
animals were taken to the Milwaukee
freight yards to be transported to Min
neapolis. Kastens, who has been an
elephant keeper thirteen years, took
the greatest precaution to prepare the
elephant for the cold trip to the de-
pot. Three blankets and tarpaulin
were placed about the animals body,
and improvised shoes We're put on her
feet Shortly after O'clock yesterday
morning, with the thermometer 33 de-
grees below zero, Kastens started for
the train with the elephant.
Resents Being Prodded.
Before the freight yards We're reach
ed the elephants ears were frozen, and
the animal became ugly. When the
car was reached the animal rebelled
and refused to step on the gangway
leading to the car door, Kastens, who
has always had control over her, be-
came angered and prodded her with a
sharp hook. C.
No sooner had he done so than the
elephant, with a roar which could be
heard for blocks, turned upon the keep
er and encircled him with her trunk.
Lifting Kastens above her head she
threw the body to the ground and STEP
ped upon it, crushing the ribs.
Employees Of the show ran to the res
cue and drove the infuriated elephant
away. Then began trouble which last
ed for twelve hours. The maddened
beast suffering from the cold, ran
amuck in the freight yards, and the
half hundred people who were watch
ing the loading of the animals fled to
places of safety.
Kastens was placed in hack and taken
to the hospital. He was found to be
seriously injured, and doubts were ex-
pressed as to his recovery.
Refuses to Leave Warm Room.
After much trouble, during which Pc
zitta had things mostly her own way,
the elephant was driven into the Mil
waukee freight house. For several hours
all attempts to get the animal out of the
warm room were in vain, and more than
once the little animal smarting under the
sting of frozen ears, made the onlookers
and show employees run for places out of
her reach.
The other animals were taken to Min
neapollS, and Pezitta was left behind.
Shortly after noon she became more do
Gle, and was loaded into a stock car and
carried to Minneapolis by a special en-
gine: Upon arriving there she was Sc
curely chained and every means was en-
pioyed to ease the pain caused by the
frozen ears.
Pezitta was not the only member of the
animal show to suffer from the intense
cold which prevailed in st. Paul yester-
day morning. An educated cockatoo, one
of the most expensive birds in the show,
froZe to death. and a number of employees
had their ears and hands frozen while
polar bears alone seemed not to mind the
weather.
Kastens, the injured keeper, is forty
six years DID, and has been in the animal
training business thirteen years. He is a
native of Germany, and his wife travels
with him.
The elephant, which is called a ''baby, -
weighs $500 pounds.
Trainer Lockhart Killed by Elephant.
LONDON, Jan. 24.-George Lockhart
the well-known animal trainer and
circus proprietor, was accidentally
crushed to death today by an elephant
while he was attending to the unload
ing of circus animals at the Hoe street
railroad station at Walthamstow.