The notion that an elephant can simply run across the continental United States, unimpeded, pushes the boundaries of fantasy. Panel 3 is a leading question:  How often would Mark see an elephant in any context, must less witness any abuse of an elephant…recently!? It’s been almost a decade since Mark was last in Africa. I suppose Rivera had to find a way to segue to the presumed misuse of tiger cubs, hence the “other animals” comment. But that stretches credulity in so many ways.

This also begs the question:  Exactly how would Tess have provoked an elephant, since they are presumably not part of her menagerie and elephants do not normally roam around this country like fox or deer. So, elephants never forget? Is this a variant on the old joke about a kid who picked on an elephant at the zoo, only to be recognized decades later and assaulted with water by the same elephant when the grownup kid revisited the zoo?