Fiona Macleod
Wildlife dealer Riccardo Ghiazza is putting together a huge consignment of animals to send to the Far East, which would have included some of the Tuli elephants if the furore about their treatment on his farm had not erupted.
Members of the industry say Ghiazza has an order for more than 400 animals from a safari park in China, and he has been buying up animals around the country in the past few months.
The shipment was due to go out at the end of this month or in August, but the Tuli elephant saga may cause complications.
Conservation officials have been watching Ghiazza’s property near Hartebeespoort Dam like hawks since early this month, after M- Net’s Carte Blanche programme placed the public spotlight on him by showing footage of his staff beating the 14 young Tuli elephants left on his property.
There is concern that the embattled Ghiazza may resort to using an unregistered airline carrier to send the animals to China, endangering their lives en route.
Other wildlife dealers said this week they will be more wary of doing business with Ghiazza in future, especially since it has come to light that he is also being investigated in connection with illegal trafficking.
The Mail & Guardian reported two weeks ago that the endangered species protection unit, a branch of the police service, is scrutinising Ghiazza’s alleged links to some of the kingpins of Southern Africa’s illegal wildlife trade.
The list of animals known to be in Ghiazza’s possession at the moment reads like a tick-list from a zoo. It includes highly endangered species like 12 wild dogs and two black rhinos, exotics like a Bengal tiger and two black bears, as well as cheetahs, lions, hyenas, white rhinos, giraffes and nyalas.
The animals come from various sources, including zoos and some of the country’s more reputable dealers. They say in their defence Ghiazza did not buy the animals directly from them, but through middlemen.
Jeff Gaisford, representative of the KwaZulu- Natal Conservation Service, which hosts South Africa’s largest and most prestigious wildlife auction each July, says Ghiazza bought four giraffes and 15 nyalas at this year’s auction.
“We can’t refuse him registration as a buyer, although it’s a bit awkward because of his reputation now. But unless he’s closed down or declared persona non grata, we will deal with him.”
Ghiazza has an “open zoo permit”, which means he can keep all kinds of animals on his property for as long as he wants. But as soon he wants to move them, he has to apply for transport permits.
These transport permits, plus the export permits he would have to get to send the animals overseas, are supplied by the Department of Conservation and Environmental Affairs in the North-West – the province where Ghiazza’s business, African Game Services, is based.
Officials in the department say Ghiazza receives an average of 600 permits a year.
He has recently been given permission to move various animals – including four rhinos, bought from Sable Ranch in the North-West and from Thabamanzi game ranch in Warmbaths. The department was not prepared this week to release lists of his recent permits.
Ghiazza was out of the country when the latest Tuli elephant scandal erupted on July 4, but he returned this week and immediately started negotiations over the fate of the 14 youngsters.
He has been ordered by Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Mohammed Valli Moosa to find a solution acceptable to the World Wide Fund for Nature and the National Council of SPCAs. The main sticking point in the negotiations this week involved five of the elephants which he has sold to Craig Saunders for R750 000. A North-West businessman with whom Ghiazza has close links, Saunders has given evidence in court in favour of Ghiazza’s elephant-training methods.
Ghiazza said he was “too busy” this week to discuss the planned consignment to China.
Members of the wildlife industry are worried that, while the focus is on the elephants in the next couple of weeks, he will manage to slip the shipment out of the country.
“When the whole rumpus over the Tuli elephants first started last year, he managed to get about 200 animals out on a cheap Russian flight, right under everyone’s noses,” says Keith Micklejohn, a KwaZulu-Natal dealer.
He adds that Ghiazza is giving legitimate South African dealers a bad name in the lucrative international wildlife trade. Estimates value this legitimate trade at about R500-million a year.
Some outfits in the United States are refusing to deal with Ghiazza or anyone associated with him in the wake of reports that large parts of the consignments of animals he ships out have died en route.
One of the chief concerns is that airlines registered with the International Air Transport Association (Iata) will refuse to take Ghiazza’s cargo to China, and he will resort to using a non-Iata carrier. Iata lays down standards for the transportation, feeding and handling of animals.
“The point is, you can catch a wild animal in the afternoon, put it in a box and get it on to a plane by the evening. But it will be dead by the time it gets to the other end,” says Micklejohn.
“This is not the way to do business. Doing it properly takes a lot longer.”