Shocking video: Circus worker dances on elephant as she dies

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT.

This shocking video of a man dancing on the back of a dying circus elephant has provoked calls for a full investigation into the tragic tusker's death, reports Central European News.

The film shows Madi - a 48-year-old Indian elephant - slowly drowning in a river as the circus owner's brother jumps around on her in a pair of swimming shorts as she slowly sinks under the surface.

Horrified witnesses made the 40-minute video when Madi, from Germany's Universal Circus Renz, was taken to a river to bathe during a tour of Estonia.

Madi - clearly frail and in distressed - stumbles onto her side into the water, and the zoo owner's brother Rene Renz leaps onto her back and begins clowning around for spectators.

Even when the stricken tusker sinks dying under the surface of the water in Narva, Renz leaps from her back in a comic dive for more laughs.

Madi had been on an extended tour of Estonia as a special attraction at Rene Renz's travelling show.

Now the circus owner Daniel Renz and brother Rene are under investigation for alleged animal cruelty.

Local Green MP Ursula Hammann said: "There needs to be an official government inquiry."

Animal rights activists from Pro Wildlife have made a formal complaint to the region's veterinary office.

"It is a truly shocking scene. The animal is clearly old and frail," said one campaigner.

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