The videotape showed the man coming back day after day. In all, she was hit 48 times.
This did not happen in the Far East, where Indian elephants are often subjected to brutal training techniques. This was in England, in Northamptonshire. And it was not any elephant: her name was Anne, and she was the last circus elephant in the country, a television star.
Anne the elephant pictured in her current surroundings at Longleat Safari Adventure Park after her time as a circus animal
When Anne was finally rescued, vets feared she was so badly traumatised that they would have no choice but to put her down. But they reckoned without Anne herself. Grumpy, determined and highly intelligent, she is a born survivor — and her ordeal is inspiring campaigners to make sure no other animal suffers in a British circus.
Footage was taken inside an elephant shed at Bobby Roberts over a three and a half week period, showing staff repeatedly hitting the beast
Animal campaigners, however, say all elephants at that time were taken from wild groups, captured by poachers who would stalk a herd and slaughter all the adult females. When their young nuzzled at the dead bodies, trying to revive them, the poachers would trap them, to be sold into the European circus trade. Poachers would have then ‘broken’ her before selling her.
A camera planted inside her enclosure by members of Animal Defenders International recorded Anne’s shocking treatment over a month
Anne did not grieve, said her owners. She was a naturally solitary creature. None of this made her the most endearing animal, but her crotchety old lady character appears to be what has kept her going. After the death of Janie and Beverly, the circus let Anne retire, though she still travelled and posed for photos.
A police officer patrols the Bobby Roberts Super Circus on Knutsford Common, Cheshire, in the aftermath of the Anne the elephant affair
When Anne was finally rescued, vets feared she was so badly traumatised that they would have no choice but to put her down. But they reckoned without Anne herself
All she could do was to shuffle sideways and back, one step in each direction, which she did constantly — rocking back and forth in frustration and boredom. Here was an animal in deep distress.