/ 25 April 2003

Ghiazza sends elephants to zoos

Animal welfare activists went to court this week to try to stop convicted wildlife dealer Riccardo Ghiazza from sending wild-caught elephants to zoos in Mexico.

Ghiazza and Manus Pretorius, of Mafunyane private game reserve in North West, were planning to send five elephants to Mexico before the weekend. One of the elephants — believed to be not much older than two — was being held at Ghiazza’s African Game Services property near Brits. The other four were kept at Mafunyane.

The youngster is believed to have been born in 2001, shortly after his pregnant mother was moved with a group of elephants from Madikwe provincial reserve in North West to Sandhurst Safaris, a private tourism and hunting outfit in the province.

“The elephant appeared very small and wild,” reported wildlife inspectors from the National Council of SPCAs after they visited Ghiazza’s premises on March 18. “It ran a pattern in and out of the brick housing and would storm at us, flapping the ears and trumpeting.”

Ghiazza is well known because of his involvement in the long-running Tuli elephant saga. He was found guilty on April 7 of contravening the Animals Protection Act by allowing the ill-treatment of 30 elephants he bought from the Tuli reserve in Botswana. Sentence is due on July 24.

Ghiazza sent four of the Tuli elephants to Sandhurst Safaris, but it is unclear if they are included in the group he is exporting. He exported three elephants to Lesna zoo in the Czech Republic earlier this month.

A coalition of animal welfare groups called Xwe says the young elephant at Ghiazza’s property was pledged to a private individual in Mexico. The other four were destined for Mexican “safari parks”.

Xwe applied to the Pretoria High Court on Wednesday for an urgent interdict preventing the export of the elephants, on the basis that the permits issued by North West officials might be illegal. The officials have refused to release the permits for scrutiny because Ghiazza and Pretorius maintain this will harm their commercial interests.

The urgent interdict was dismissed on a technicality: the judge ruled that the Pretoria High Court did not have the jurisdiction to hear the application because a North West MEC was cited as one of the respondents,.

At the time the Mail & Guardian went to press, it was unclear if Xwe would take further legal action — or if the five elephants were already on their way to Mexico.