Pretoria - The Tuli elephants were so scared of their handlers they lost control of their bowels while being beaten, Ann Cheater - monitor for the National Council of the Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA)- told the Pretoria regional court on Wednesday.

She was testifying in the trial of Riccardo Ghiazza, the owner of the De Rust property, African Game Services, where the 30 juvenile elephants were kept.

Charged with Ghiazza are Craig Mitchell Saunders and Henry Wayne Stockigt.

The men are accused of depriving the animals of food and using equipment that could injure them. They have pleaded not guilty.

Ghiazza has also pleaded not guilty to a charge of failing to have a licence to train the elephants, which were imported from Botswana in 1998.

Breaking the spirit

Cheater told the court the Indonesian training methods used on the elephants involved domination and breaking the spirit to teach them to acknowledge human beings as their superiors. The animals were also taught to fear a "severe action" should they disobey.

In an incident in March 1999, an elephant known as Tuli was kicked in its genitals by a handler after another had hit it repeatedly across the face when it would not keep still.

Tuli, the oldest of the bulls and not the easiest to work with, had previously been tapped on its genitals five times with a handler's boot.

The genitals were the only place elephants were vulnerable Cheater said.

Listing a litany of whippings with sjamboks, beatings with wooden batons and hands as well as the use of metal rods with spiked hooks (ankuses), and hooked ear-loops, Cheater told the court that the elephants became too stressed to perform activities they normally enjoyed.

They began hurting themselves to escape their handlers and constantly anticipated attacks.

The NSPCA realised that a handler may require some sort of stick for defence, but requested that the sharp ankuses not be used, removed some of them and ensured those still in use were blunted.

Sarcastic elephant language

She believed Ghiazza, who spoke to the veterinarians and trainers regularly, was aware of all incidents on the property at any given time. He had not taken the monitors seriously, ignoring their requests, or making sarcastic comments, such as asking the elephants in 'elephant language' whether they were hungry and what they would like to eat.

Monitors had reportedly been treated extremely rudely, like being sworn at by some people at African Game Services. One evening monitors had to call police when they were prevented from leaving the premises, Cheater told the court.

The trial continues.

SAPA