Pretoria - An international elephant training expert Randall Moore told the Pretoria Regional Court on Monday that the beatings meted out to the Tuli elephants, brought to South Africa from Botswana in 1998, were unnecessary and cruel.
Moore was testifying in the trial of three men accused of contravening the
Animal Protection Act.
He said while slapping an animal was tantamount to slapping a child or dog
and not unacceptable, "beating the heck out of it with a stick" was
a "major problem".
"Rather than reinforcing any behaviour, a young elephant would fight
its handler."
'Surprising the elephant did not kill him'
Riccardo Ghiazza, owner of the elephants and the De Rust plot where they
were kept, his employees, Wayne Stockigt and Craig Saunders, pleaded not
guilty of contravening the Animal Protection Act.
The men were accused of depriving the elephants of food and using
instruments in their training which could injure them.
Ghiazza also pleaded not guilty to not having a licence to train the
elephants.
"It was surprising the elephant did not kill Mr Stockigt when it
turned on him after he flew 'into a rage', hitting the animal 'blindly', with
excessive force, and without care," Moore testified.
It had not seemed to him the elephant was trying to "It's not a proper way to train an elephant," he told the court.
Bond should have been established
He could not explain why the elephant had then immediately obeyed and stood
still.
Moore said the correct place to strike a blow would be around the trunk,
which consisted of 100 000 muscles and no bone.
"Hitting it elsewhere on its head, or using too much force could cause
a severe haematoma, crack its skull or damaging the animal's eyes or
ears," Moore said.
Metal poles with a hook and spike on the end, called ankuses, as well as
chains and ropes were tools used in elephant training throughout the world,
but there were proper ways to use them, he testified.
In the wrong hands an ankus was a "lethal weapon".
In a visit to the plot where the elephants were kept, Moore said he advised
Ghiazza that putting pieces of hose pipe on the chains used to tether the
animals would have prevented it cutting into their legs and causing wounds.
Moore said rather than domination, the method he used to train elephants
was a lengthy one of repetitive positive and negative reinforcement in which a
bond was established between trainer and animal.
The trial continues. article from