Pretoria - An animal handler wearing gumboots and carrying a pitchfork hit and kicked an elephant from Tuli, Botswana, then stabbed it in the foot with the fork, animal activists told the court on Friday.

This was the testimony of Vonny Strachan, a monitor for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), at the trial of three animal handlers who allegedly hurt and injured the elephants.

The owner of the elephants, Riccardo Ghiazza, and two of his employees, Wayne Stockigt and Craig Saunders, have pleaded not guilty to contravening the Animal Protection Act.

The incident - which took place in 1998 on Ghiazza's property near Brits in the North West - left four bloody holes in the elephant's foot. A doctor who had been drawing blood from nearby elephants looked at the wound and sprayed it with antiseptic, Strachan said.

Under cross-examination, Strachan admitted not being aware that Ghiazza had fired three animal handlers as a result of the incident.

She also admitted not having noticed that the sharp-pointed pitchforks were thrown away and replaced with ones that had balls on the tips of the tines.

The trial continues. 
article from www.news24.co.za