Elephant to be euthanised

2009-09-30 22:12

Cape Town - The elephant cow that provoked an uproar from an animal rights group when it was spotted on an Mpumalanga game reserve's live webcam last week, distressed and in pain, was found on Wednesday by rangers in the Sabi Sand Reserve.

A decision was taken to euthanise the animal, Djuma Private Game Reserve owner Jurie Moolman told Sapa in an e-mail.

Djuma is one of more than a dozen lodges and reserves that make up the 65 000 hectare Sabi Sand Reserve, which shares an unfenced 50km border with the Kruger National Park.

Too old to chew

"[The elephant] has now been investigated and it was determined that she is very old - so old that her teeth are too worn for her to masticate her food properly, and thus a bolus of unchewed food is blocking her alimentary canal," said Moolman.

"She is constipated, in pain and at the end of her natural life. She will be euthanised once she is on her own.

"Her calf of three-years-old is no longer suckling and has been seen within the breeding herd.

On Monday this week, the group Animal Rights Africa demanded the reserve's owners help the elephant.

Suffered for over two weeks

According to the group, the elephant had suffered for more than two weeks with what appeared to be birth complications.

Moolman said it had only become clear at the end of last week that the elephant was in distress.

He said the reserve had "a policy of non-intervention when it comes to animals in distress not caused by humans", but in the case of this animal the Sabi Sand Reserve's ecological committee had decided to intervene.

- An earlier version of this story mistakenly reported that the elephant had been euthanised.

- SAPA