Allen Campbell was a zookeeper and elephant trainer and handler in his hometown of Jacksonville, Florida before moving to work in the Baton Rouge zoo in the mid 1970s as the elephant keeper and trainer. He also ran the first elephant ride there. He advanced elephant care at the Baton Rouge zoo by insisting that all of the elephants needed to be fed and watered and their enclosure cleaned every night as well as every day. He usually did this himself and was known to be a workaholic as many elephant men are. He contracted to run the elephant ride and provide a baby elephant mascot for the Denver zoo in 1986. He worked as an elephant consultant for many zoo's including the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. He was heavily influenced by circus trainer Rex Williams and his life's ambition was to have a circus elephant act. He eventually worked as an elephant trainer for The Hawthorn Corporation. Campbell was crushed to death on August 20, 1994, at the Neal Blaisdell Center in Honolulu, Hawaii

Honolulu, Hawaii

Honolulu is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Hawaii. Honolulu is the southernmost major U.S. city. Although the name "Honolulu" refers to the urban area on the southeastern shore of the island of Oahu, the city and county government are consolidated as the City and...

, after attempting to save fellow co-worker Dallas Beckwith from the performing elephant "Tyke

Tyke (elephant)

Tyke was a female circus elephant who on August 20, 1994, in Honolulu, Hawaii, killed her trainer, Allen Campbell, and gored her groomer Dallas Beckwith causing severe injuries during a Circus International performance before hundreds of horrified spectators at the Neal Blaisdell Center...

", who had run amok.

Allen Campbell's autopsy revealed that he had cocaine and alcohol in his system at the time of his death. Officials at the Denver Zoo confirm that Campbell was the target of complaints in the late 1980s that he abused zoo elephants while running an elephant and camel ride concession in Denver.