The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA) on Thursday said it was disappointed by the decision by the director of public prosecutions in Grahamstown not to prosecute the directors of the Brian Boswell Circus and its former elephant trainers.
The manager of the NSPCA’s Wildlife Protection Unit‚ Isabel Wentzel‚ said she felt justice had not been served.
The NSPCA is disappointed with a Eastern Cape High Court judgement on alleged animal torture at the Boswell Circus.
In March 2013‚ the welfare organisation laid criminal charges against seven people from the Brian Boswell Circus related to the beating‚ chaining and confining of the elephants‚ and the failure to provide them with sufficient water and shade.
Video footage taken by witnesses at the circus showed two elephants beaten with sticks and whips‚ chained and exposed to heat for hours without access to shade or water whilst the circus was at Walmer West Primary School in Port Elizabeth between December 2013 and January 2014.
“The worse of it was the beating — the unnecessary beating — it wasn’t training‚ it wasn’t anything; it was just plain ‘I want to show you what I can do and just beat you’‚” Wentzel said.
Four of the handlers were allegedly dismissed after the video was shown on Carte Blanche and‚ according to the NSPCA‚ cannot be found.
Wentzel said that‚ short of finding the handlers who were shown beating the elephants in the footage‚ there is not much the organisation can do because the owners of the circus have not been forthcoming.
“They are not willing to give any information on the handlers…surely they must have their names‚ surely they must have ID numbers if you employ somebody‚” Wentzel said.
Wentzel said that without names or ID numbers police cannot issue warrants for arrests.
In January this year‚ the remaining three accused made their first appearances in a Port Elizabeth court‚ but the case was postponed a numerous times without any decisions being made.
Wentzel said that the organisation received a letter earlier this month from director of public prosecutions in Grahamstown advocate Chris de Klerk‚ informing them that the state declined to prosecute and that the charges must be withdrawn against the three accused.
In the letter quoted by the NSPCA‚ De Klerk said that the footage showed “incidents that amount to ill-treatment of elephants”‚ but added that the individuals involved could not be traced.
De Klerk said for the state to hold the owner accountable there needed to be evidence that the owner either knowingly permitted such conduct or failed to prevent such conduct through the exercise of reasonable care and supervision. He said that there was no evidence of that.
But the NSPCA contended that statements by witnesses indicate that these owners were personally informed of incidents of beatings of the elephants that occurred even before incidents were captured on video‚ but failed to take action.
The two elephants at the centre of this case were removed from the circus and returned to the premises of the Natal Zoological Gardens. – TMG Digital