Circus owner acquitted of causing elephant to suffer
November 27, 2012, Tuesday
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Print Edition
A British circus owner has been given a conditional discharge for causing unnecessary suffering to an Asian elephant by keeping her chained up and allowing a handler to beat her.
Bobby Roberts, 69, was convicted of three counts of causing unnecessary suffering to an animal.
Northampton Crown Court heard last Friday that Anne, an arthritic 58-year-old elephant was kept tethered to the ground by one front leg and one back leg at all times.
Roberts failed to give Anne arthritis medicine and to prevent a handler from repeatedly beating her. Roberts told the court he would never have condoned the beatings.
Secret film of the beatings taken in 2011 by rights group Animal Defenders International (ADI) formed a key part of the prosecution case.
Roberts's wife, Moira, 75, was cleared of the same three after a five-day trial. Both she and her husband had denied the charges.
The Press Association reported that District Judge David Chinnery told Bobby Roberts he recognized that he had not directly inflicted the suffering, adding that he had cared for animals "for the greater part of your 70 years without criticism from any quarter.
"No cruelty was administered by your own hand. The chaining was serious but the real cruelty was inflicted by your groom, behind your back and without your knowledge."
The Crown Prosecution Service issued a statement after the verdict. "Today should serve as a warning that those who mistreat animals can expect to face prosecution."
But ADI was disappointed with the sentence, calling it derisory and not a deterrent. In April 2011, as a result of the secret filming, Anne was removed from the Super Circus in Polebrook, Northamptonshire owned by Roberts, and re-homed at a safari park. She was born in the wild in Sri Lanka in 1954.
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