OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday 9.30pm.
THIRTY young elephants at the heart of a fierce row about animal cruelty are to stay with trainers accused of inhumane treatment for at least another week, an official said on Friday.
The plight of the elephants has divided organisations dedicated to animal welfare, some of whose activists have chained themselves in protest to South African embassies abroad while others have praised the Indonesian trainers for their innovative response to over-population.
The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which on Wednesday won an urgent court order to confiscate the elephants being tamed in captivity near Johannesburg, decided on Friday to let them stay with the company which owns and trains them until Tuesday, when a magistrate and elephant experts will evaluate their condition.
The court order was based on NSPCA allegations that the trainers were using whips, chains and shackles.
Magistrate Herman Glas permitted the NSPCA to remove and tend to the elephants pending the outcome of a criminal case of cruelty against the owners, African Game Services.
On Thursday, however, the Italian owner of African Game Services, Riccardo Ghiazza, approached Glas asking him to overturn his order. After lengthy discussions between Glas and lawyers for the two sides, it was decided that the court will inspect Ghiazza’s premises on Tuesday and examine the condition of the elephants.
NSPCA Executive Director Marcelle French said there was some doubt as to whether the elephants, aged between four and nine years, were well enough to be moved.
“If we move them and they die, we can be criminally responsible,” she said. “So we have decided that they should remain where they are until Tuesday. Until then the owners are not allowed to train or tame them.”
The NSPCA will bring two elephant experts from Kenya to testify as to the health of the elephants, who have been undergoing training for some 10 weeks.
Ghiazza said the elephants are in good condition. “There is absolutely nothing wrong with them,” he said. He brought the elephants from the Tuli Game Reserve in Botswana, which is struggling with elephant overpopulation, to South Africa to tame them and later sell them to zoos and reserves.