IMAGE GALLERY A sad saga of African elephants

Abuse charges lead to tug-of-war over South African elephants

July 22, 1999
Web posted at: 11:14 p.m. EDT (0314 GMT)

From Correspondent Charlayne Hunter-Gault

BRITS, South Africa (CNN) -- An old African proverb says when elephants fight, it's the grass that suffers.

In South Africa these days, the fight going on is over a group of 30 elephants that were captured in a game preserve in Botswana and brought to the country by a private animal trainer.

Sixteen of the elephants were sent to zoos and game reserves around the world. A controversy erupted after animal protection officials alleged that the remaining 14 pachyderms were suffering from both physical and psychological abuse.

The animals had been shackled and severely beaten during so- called training exercises conducted by Indonesian trainers. Eventually, the South African Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was awarded custody.

But even under SPCA protection, the elephants' sad saga continued. Attempts to train the animals, caught on videotape, resulted in some of the same abuses. The organization now admits that its oversight was flawed because, among other things, it didn't know enough about training animals.

The SPCA now wants all 14 elephants released into the wild. That has set off a tug-of-war with the elephants' owners.

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