In May 1999, Carte Blanche aired a segment showing the mistreatment of 30 elephants that had been captured at Botswana’s Tuli game reserve.

The young elephants had been taken to African Game Services in the North West province, where they were abused and exploited for profit, with some being sold for profit and exported to zoos in Germany and Switzerland.

For their roles in the abuse, Riccardo Ghiazza and Wayne Stockigt were found guilty of offences under the Animals Protection Act in the Pretoria Regional Court in 2003, in what was a major victory for the NSPCA.

You can read more on the Tuli elephants here, but let’s focus on another man who featured in that case, Craig Saunders.

He was charged with animal abuse at the time, but was acquitted and maintains his innocence. Since his involvement as a volunteer at Tuli, Saunders has gone on to operate a number of ‘elephant sanctuaries’, and his most recent venture is again the focus of another Carte Blanche investigation.

Derek Watts paid Craig a visit, and took a closer look at the Lamloch Safari Park in Kleinmond, which has been met with much pushback from the local community and environmental groups.

[source:carteblanche]