Tuli elephants owner blasts NSPCA

September 07 1999 at 06:07PM

Riccardo Ghiazza, the owner of the controversial Tuli elephants which have formed the subject of protracted legal battles over the past year, has lashed out at the NSPCA for acting in the interests of a "political agenda" and not having the welfare of the animals as its primary concern.

Ghiazza sought a high court order to set aside a decision by a Brits magistrate, who last year awarded full custody of Ghiazza's elephants to the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

The NSPCA was at first granted leave to remove the elephants from Ghiazza's farm, African Game Services, in Brits. However, the organisation was later interdicted from doing so.

The initial order was granted after an international outcry as some experts claimed cruel training methods were used on the animals.

At that stage, there were 30 elephants on the farm. They had all been earmarked for overseas zoos and game parks.

Since then, most of the elephants were sold and sent to their new owners.

There are five elephants remaining on the farm and they have been sold to Craig Saunders.

Saunders, however, was prevented from removing the elephants by the custody order granted to the NSPCA.

Ghiazza claimed in court papers the magistrate, Herman Glass, had taken irrelevant considerations into account with regard to inadmissible hearsay evidence.

He claimed the magistrate made no clear finding regarding cruelty and he was biased towards the legal act of keeping animals in captivity and training them.

He said Glass had not bothered to weigh the credibility and acceptability of the various expert witnesses called by both parties.

The entire judgment, Ghiazza said, was a generalisation and contained no proper reasons for the order which was eventually made.

He said the magistrate should have taken into account that the entire matter was political in nature and that the welfare of the elephants was not the primary concern of the NSPCA or its witnesses.

"Objectively the order made was not suitable, necessary or proportionate to the end for which it was intended," Ghiazza said.

Marcelle French, NSPCA chief executive officer, in answering papers pointed out the object of the litigation against Ghiazza was to prevent cruelty or suffering to the animals, who were unable to speak or to communicate their pain to human beings.

"In spite of their ability to do so, Ghiazza and African Game Services had failed to explain their methods employed to train the elephants and the manner in which instruments were used upon the elephants," French said.

"In fact, all the witnesses who testified on behalf of them did not dispute that the elephants had been beaten," French added.

French accused Ghiazza and his counsel of taking a "xenophobic approach" to witnesses who testified on behalf of the NSPCA.

"South Africa cannot live in isolation, and regard should be had of international attitudes and developments when determining an appropriate South African philosophy and response towards conservation and the utilisation of animals."

French refuted allegations of a hidden political agenda.

"No political motive could be attributed to any of the NSPCA witnesses which was sufficient to affect their credibility and accuracy," he said.

The application continues. - Sapa