By ANNE BESTON
Auckland Zoo is defending itself against charges that two new elephants it wants to import from Thailand have undergone torture and abuse at the hands of trainers.
One bull elephant and a cow, aged between 5 and 8 years, are destined to arrive at the zoo by early next
year.
The elephants are part of a contingent of nine being shipped from Thailand to Australia and New Zealand. The others are going to Sydney's Taronga Zoo and Melbourne Zoo.
Auckland Zoo now has two elephants: Kashin, who is thought to be about 38 years old, and Burma, who is 21.
Auckland Zoo director Glen Holland said the partnership between the three zoos would result in an elephant captive breeding programme for Australasia, something which had not been done before.
But the plan has created a furore in Australia, where animal rights activists are accusing the zoos of condoning animal torture.
New South Wales Animal Liberation president Mark Pearson said torturing elephants to "break their spirit" so they could be kept in captivity was common practice.
He believed the two destined for Auckland would have been through a brutal training regime.
"All these animals will have been domesticated, and in order to do that you tie them up, beat them, cause them pain and half-starve them," he said.
Mr Holland vehemently denied the two elephants being brought here would have been mistreated and said they were domesticated animals which didn't need to be "broken in".
"We've had staff from the zoos in [Thailand] for over 18 months now to make sure everything is above-board," he said.
"We've met with the owners of the elephants, the managers of the elephant camps, looked at the training methods used on the elephants and gone into the history of the elephants," Mr Holland said.
Mr Pearson said his group's claims of elephant torture were backed by a former keeper from Taronga Zoo who was calling on the Australian Government to stop the imports.
But Mr Holland said the keeper had worked at the zoo 30 years ago when elephants were not looked after the way they are now.
He acknowledged that elephants were a key attraction for any zoo but said Auckland's elephants were kept "in the lap of luxury".
"People are quite happy to put these emotional objections out there," he said.
"But when you come down to the nitty-gritty there is no substantiation of their claims."
By ANNE BESTON
Auckland Zoo is defending itself against charges that two new elephants it wants to import from Thailand have undergone torture and abuse at the hands of trainers.
One bull elephant and a cow, aged between 5 and 8 years, are destined to arrive at the zoo by early next
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