26/02/2002 18:43 - (SA)
Monitor: Tuli elephant charged me
Andries Venter, a monitor for the National Council of
the Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, was testifying in the
maltreatment trial of elephants.
They were imported by Riccardo Ghiazza from Botswana's
Tuli block in 1998 and kept at his plot near Brits.
Ghiazza, Craig Saunders and Henry Stockigt have
pleaded not guilty to four charges, under the Animal Protection Act, of
depriving the animals of food and using equipment on them that could lead to
injuries.
Ghiazza has also pleaded not guilty of not being
licensed to train the elephants.
Venter told the court that the elephant lifted him
from the ground and pinned him to a wall with a tusk. One of his lungs
collapsed in the attack and, gasping for breath, he sank to the floor.
Denying that Ghiazza came to his rescue, he said it
was only when he had crawled to the door of the warehouse that Ghiazza and
other people helped him to a couch in an office.
Venter arrived on the African Game Properties in De
Rust in October 1998 to monitor the feeding and handling of the animals.
On an occasion he witnessed a handler sjambok an
elephant eight times on its trunk and next to its mouth when the animal, its
legs shackled and ears tied to a pole, went for carrots placed in front of it,
he said.
"According to my knowledge of the Animal
Protection Act this was animal maltreatment and was unnecessary," Venter
testified.
In other instances, he saw a handler punch an elephant
on its forehead, then hit it on the forehead with a wooden baton.
He also saw an elephant being punched in its eye and
another kicked behind the ankle when it broke loose.
In an attempt to stop abuses, he had initially
pretended to use a video-camera while a colleague moved closer to the scene.
This had sometimes worked.
They had also tried to speak to handlers during breaks
and explain to them that those on camera could be held responsible for their
actions.
When the monitors tried to order handlers to stop what
they believed was abuse while it was occurring, the handlers simply walked to
Ghiazza's office, leaving the animals where they were, to do as they wished,
or laughed at the monitors.
Once, a handler had made as if he was coming for the
camera with a stick "to frighten us", Venter testified.
His video footage of a handler hitting an elephant on
its rear and across its trunk with a wooden baton when the animal moved
towards a student handler trying to shackle one of its legs, was shown to the
court on Tuesday.
In other evidence, another monitor, Daniel Stewart,
testified on observing handlers using hooked and spiked metal rods to strike
frisky elephants at the base of their trunks "with maximum force".
One had bled afterwards.
While agreeing, under cross examination that the
action might have been a form of discipline of animals playing up, Stewart
told the court that the extent of the control was questionable.
"You could control any animal with a lesser
degree of violence," he testified.