28/02/2002 20:51 - (SA)
Tuliphant 'too fidgety'
The handler, Wayne Stockigt, has pleaded not guilty,
with Craig Saunders and the elephants' owner, Riccardo Ghiazza, of
contravening the Animal Protection Act by depriving the animals of food and
using equipment on them which could injure them.
Ghiazza has also pleaded not guilty of not having a
licence to train elephants.
National Council of the Societies for the Prevention
of Cruelty to Animals monitor Karen Moller told the court that Stockigt
started hitting the animal when he became frustrated because the animal would
not stand still to be tethered by a student handler.
Stockigt's attorney Allan Trusler told the court that
his client had been under the impression that the elephant was trying to trap
the handler against a railing and hurt her.
He, therefore, hit the elephant to try and stop this,
hitting it again when the animal turned on him.
Describing his actions as "not reasonable,"
Moller testified that an alternative would have been to distract the elephant
by using food.
"Frightening and bewildering" the animal by
hitting it would have caused it to move around more.
While conceding that elephants did have a tendency to
lean on people and crush them when they were angry, she did not believe the
elephant had been trying to crush or trample the student handler.
The elephant had been giving problems, but not serious
problems. It had been fidgeting, she told the court under cross-examination.
Moller told the court that, in her studies of animal
behaviour, she learnt punishment was necessary only when an animal was
endangering either itself or a person.
The trial continues.
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