UK circus owner found guilty of elephant abuse
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A still photograph taken from video shows a groom hitting Anne, the elephant, in this undated handout photograph received from Animal Defenders International in London on Nov 23, 2012. Bobby Roberts, a British circus owner was given a conditional discharge on Friday for causing unnecessary suffering to the Asian elephant by keeping her chained up and allowing a handler to beat her. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
LONDON (AP) - A British court has found a circus owner guilty of causing unnecessary suffering to a performing elephant.
A judge at Northampton Crown Court convicted Bobby Roberts after the court was shown secretly-filmed footage of a groom hitting 58-year-old elephant Anne with a pitchfork.
The video, which was recorded by the group Animal Defenders International in 2011, showed the groom kicking and hitting the Asian elephant, which was seen chained by a foot and a hind leg in a barn.
The 69-year-old Roberts told the court during a five-day trial that he would never have condoned the behavior of the groom, who is believed to have returned to his home in Romania.
