London: Despite strong protests, three wild elephants removed from a game reserve in South Africa , were transported by a British Airways cargo plane to a zoo in Warsaw. Seven wild elephants had been removed from a game reserve in the Lompopo province of South Africa for zoos in Poland and China , amid protests. Two leading animal welfare organisations the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and the Royal Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) had called on British Airways (BA)on August 5 to call off this controversial flight. However, British Airways chose to fly out three elephants, while the remaining four await their turn.

A South African newspaper report of 07 August quoted the exporter, Manus Pretorius, as saying the remaining elephants will go to a safari park in China by another, as yet unidentified carrier.

South Africa ‘s National Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA) was concerned by the incident and said: “For us it is much more than their physical safety or well-being. It is about moving with the times, the changing of attitudes and seeing the wider picture – and moving globally against the exploitation of wildlife.”

Three of the six-year-old elephants, who have been already sent via Spain to a zoo in the Polish capital, have spent their lives so far roaming freely on a game reserve.

South Africa has recently been involved in several other controversial sales of wild elephants to overseas zoos and has come under repeated fire for the way in which it commercially exploits its wildlife. For example allowing the trophy hunting of lions, leopards and rhinos by rich Western hunters and also the recent rise of ‘elephant back safaris’. These involve African elephants being taken from the wild and subjected to “violent domestication” for use by tourists. In one case in 2003, a private company was prosecuted for the cruel mistreatment of 30 young elephants caught for this trade. The animals’ training involved being repeatedly shackled, whipped and kicked in the genitals.

Last year, seven young wild elephants were taken from their mothers and sent from South Africa to zoos in the Czech Republic and Mexico . In yet another case 11 six-year-old elephants were involved. They were orphaned when their mothers were shot during a government-sanctioned cull in the Kruger National Park and subsequently sent to live in a national park in Swaziland . These disturbed youngsters were re-captured in 2003 and sent to the San Diego Zoo in California (seven animals) and the Lowry Park Zoo in Florida (the remaining four). The zoos had been keen to import young, wild elephants due to the rapidly ageing captive population in US zoos. This trade went ahead despite legal efforts by a coalition of NGOs to stop it. The elephants will now spend the rest of their lives in barren enclosures of just 2.5 acres.

Regarding the BA flight, a South African political party also took an immediate step. The Democratic Alliance called on the Minister for Environmental Affairs and Tourism to investigate why a permit – initially turned down – was granted for the export, in apparent contravention of South Africa’s commitments to the Convention on the Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). This states that the international trade in live elephants is banned except to “appropriate and acceptable” destinations and for clearly non-commercial purposes, such as conservation or science. However the effort of the Democratic Alliance went in vain.

Although BA’s policy states that it will not carry endangered species ‘except for conservation purposes’, NSPCA questions their principles and ethical standards with regard to this particular incident.