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Stop SA elephant tours - demand
22/06/2005 19:43 - (SA)

Johannesburg - The International Fund for Animal Welfare (Ifaw) has called for South Africa's growing elephant-back safari and tourism industry to be stopped immediately.

Jason Bell-Leask, Ifaw's director in Southern Africa, said: "It needs to be stopped, and it needs to be stopped now."

His call came in the wake of the trampling to death of a man by a bull elephant at Knysna on Tuesday morning as he took the jumbo, 72-year-old Harry, for a walk.

Christina Pretorius of Ifaw said the tragedy had raised alarm bells about the burgeoning elephant-back safari and tourism industry.

"Ifaw and its partner organisation, the Ethical Conservation Network (ECN), have expressed dismay at the tragedy.

"However, they warn that as elephant tourism becomes more extensive, the chance of more people being injured and possibly killed by the pachyderms becomes more likely."

Others have been injured

Bell-Leask said: "This is the first time someone has been killed by a so-called tame, trained elephant in South Africa.

"But, elephants in the tourism industry are known to have injured several guests and handlers in recent years."

He said the tragedy at the park between Knysna and Plettenberg Bay, which left the victim's wife and three children without a husband and father, should sound a warning bell about the dangers of this kind of tourism.

Bell-Leask said Ifaw and ECN recently launched their "Born to be Wild!" campaign to oppose the removal of elephants from the wild for commercial purposes.

"Elephants are rapidly becoming conservation's latest commodity with increasing numbers of animals being taken from the wild for lives in captivity, including the elephant-back safari and tourism industry, he said.

No laws governing training

"Training methods are entirely unregulated and therefore open to widespread abuse.

"No laws exist in South Africa to govern methods used in training elephants for safari tourism - trainers and handlers themselves do not require any formal training or education, and the industry is generating an increasing demand for elephants."

According to Ifaw, South Africa's elephant-back safari and tourism industry began with a single operator four years ago.

It has since grown to include nine operators, with at least 72 elephants being used in four of the country's nine provinces, said Ifaw.