News24, South Africa 

Three in court for abusing elephants

25/02/2002 21:30  - (SA)   

Pretoria - Three men accused of ill-treating 30 elephants imported from Botswana in 1998 pleaded not guilty to four charges under the Animal Protection Act in the Pretoria Regional Court on Monday.

Riccardo Ghiazza (47) of Skeerpoort, Craig Mitchell Saunders (38) of Brits and Henry Wayne Stockigt (34) of Randpark Ridge, denied causing any harm or pain to the animals.

The three allegedly deprived the animals of food and used equipment on them that could lead to injuries.

A fifth charge against Ghiazza relates to the absence of a licence to train the elephants.

Ghiazza imported the animals from Botswana's Tuli Block in 1998 to train them for foreign zoos and safari parks.

The case arose after the National Council of the Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA) obtained video footage showing how the animals were treated on Ghiazza's property near Brits.

The footage was broadcast on M-Net's Carte Blanche.

Complaints 'vexatious and without reasonable cause'

Ghiazza on Monday denied cruelty allegations, saying the NSPCA might have had an ulterior motive to lodge an action against him.

Saunders described the complaints against them as "vexatious and without reasonable cause".

However, he admitted to administering blows with a light wooden stick to an elephant known as Baby, and another called Tina, on separate occasions in April and May 1999.

He denied all allegations against him, saying he never caused the elephants any pain and suffering or used any more force than was necessitated by the circumstances.

He also denied acting cruelly or unreasonably.

NSPCA inspector, Rick Allan, said he first knew of the elephants' plight in a magazine advertisement.

This was in an article headed: "To Save an Elephant, asking for sponsorship for a business venture involving the training of elephants for bush clearing."

There were few elephants in captivity trained to do the job, and he was concerned about the training of any brought from their natural environment.

African elephants were more difficult to train than their Asian counterparts, he told the court.

Hearing that Allan was asking questions about their origin, Ghiazza contacted him and invited him to see them.

Indonesian training methods brutal

A short while later, after a now defunct wildlife group issued a press statement on the elephants, Ghiazza's lawyers sent him a letter instructing him to stop interfering with his legitimate business.

Allan's internet research of elephant training had, meanwhile, shown Indonesian methods to be brutal, and he became concerned when he saw three Indonesian trainers on the premises during his visit.

He wanted to see the elephants again, but was sure he would be denied entry to the premises, so he obtained a court order enabling access.

He went there on September 2, with a video camera, and viewed them in the presence of Ghiazza's veterinarian and legal representative.

He found 14 young African elephants and an Asian elephant.

Some of them were chained around their fore and hind legs, hobbled with bamboo figures-of-eight, unable to lie down, with no bedding, and noticed home-made training implements with points much too sharp, Allan said.

A court order was granted on October 14, giving the NSPCA control and custody of the elephants, but not allowing it to remove them from the African Game Properties premises in De Rust.

The NSPCA deployed monitors and "tried to do the best it could, but the monitors were not trained elephant handlers, the NSPCA believed the facilities inadequate, and found itself in a very difficult position", he said.

Allan conceded even though the NSCPA had custody of the animals, it did nothing to stop the existing handlers' treatment of them other than lay criminal charges.

He said the NSPCA was not responsible for any abuse against the animals while it was in control of the elephants.

The trial continues.