The fate of three elephants being kept at the Johannesburg Zoo is under the spotlight before the Pretoria High Court, with animal right groups calling for their relocation.
Image: File
The fate of the three elephants - Lammie, Mopane, and Ramadiba - is under judicial scrutiny this week before the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, with groups calling for the release of the three from the Johannesburg Zoo.
The application was brought by Animal Law Reform South Africa, the EMS Foundation, and Khoi Chief Stephen Fritz.
This legal action seeks orders declaring the continued confinement of the elephants to be unlawful and unconstitutional, reviewing and setting aside decisions to keep the elephants in captivity, and directing the respondents to facilitate the elephants' transfer to an appropriate rewilding facility.
The respondents are the Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo NPC, the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality, the Gauteng Provincial MEC for Economic Development, Agriculture, Environment and Rural Development, and the Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment.
The case also addresses the cultural and living heritage rights of the Khoi peoples, including their spiritual beliefs and holistic approach to nature, protected under the Natural Heritage Resources Act and the Constitution.
Expert testimony from prominent specialists in elephant behaviour and welfare relating to allegations that the elephants currently endure conditions adverse to their well-being, causing ongoing and increasing distress, will also be presented to the court.
According to the experts, the elephants live in captive conditions, which fall short of meeting their needs and are adverse to their welfare and well-being, causing damage to their physical, mental, and emotional health.
Some of the world’s leading experts in elephant behaviour, as well as veterinarians, will attest to the conditions in which the elephants are being kept.
The applicants argue that there are no reasonable or rational conservation or public interest purposes for the retention of these elephants under their current conditions.
Lammie was born in captivity at the zoo and is now 47 years old. Lammie’s only companion for a long time, Kinkel, died in 2018. Mopane, 23, and Ramadiba, 26, were bought by the zoo in 2019. They were wild but later captured and trained for elephant-back safaris, before they were bought by the zoo.
In 2018, an elephant specialist observed Lammie over three days via video footage, and further observations were made later when the other two elephants joined the zoo.
A welfare report, which was subsequently issued, reported that the enclosure in which the elephants are being kept was “totally inadequate”, as well as the food they are given.
The experts concluded that Lammie was “a mentally broken elephant”, Mopani was “bored and frustrated”, and Ramadiba was at risk of “falling into total depression”.
It is recommended in the report that the three be relocated as soon as possible. In 2023, a further team of experts, including veterinarians, also visited the elephants, and their reports also form part of the legal bid to have the elephants relocated.
The core of the applicants' case is that the respondents are keeping the elephants in harmful conditions, and their refusal to relocate them to more suitable environments is irrational.
They are asking the court to direct the careful relocation of these animals into a suitable, protected environment, coupled with a rehabilitation plan, so that they can be happy for the remainder of their lives.
In opposing the application, the respondents argue that the applicants want the elephants released into the wild, without having any regard for their best interests.
But the applicants countered this by arguing that they do not want to release the elephants from the zoo to fend for themselves in some “wild area”, but that they will be reintegrated into a protected area, at their own pace.
The respondents argue that the zoo continues to engage with experts concerning the elephants' best interests, asserting that keeping them in captivity is the only way to ensure their well-being.
zelda.venter@inl.co.za