Circus trainer acquitted of elephant abuse
Date: 24-Dec-01
Country: USA
Author: Michael Kahn
Mark Gebel, 31, was acquitted of the misdemeanor abuse charge after just two hours of deliberations in a case which had drawn media interest around the world.
"I knew this was going to come out right," Gebel said after the verdict. "I love animals with all my heart. Animals are my life."
Gebel, the son of the late legendary Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey animal trainer Gunther Gebel-Williams, had been accused of abusing an elephant named "Asia" after he allegedly struck it with a hooked prod during a performance on Aug. 25, leaving a bloody wound on the animal's leg.
Prosecutors, invoking a 1989 California law banning elephant abuse, accused Gebel of using violent force to punish or discipline the animal - a violation of the statute.
But Gebel's attorney, Jim McManis, argued forcefully that no "punishment" had occurred, saying instead that the charges were part of a political campaign mounted by "a handful of extremists" seeking to halt the use of wild animals in live performances.
"This was a witch-hunt mounted by animal rights activists, and the case should never have come to court," the attorney said.
Confident of victory, McManis declined to call a single defense witness to bolster his case, saying the prosecution had done his job for him by putting forward such weak arguments for conviction.
"I think the evidence spoke for itself. There was no case here," McManis said after the jury's verdict was read.
A DEFEAT FOR ACTIVISTS
Friday's verdict represented a defeat for animal rights groups, which have described Ringling Brothers - for generations America's favorite circus - as "The Cruelest Show on Earth" for the way its animals are allegedly treated.
Circuses are among a number of targets of an increasingly active U.S. animal rights movement, which in recent years has also gone after everything from medical research labs to mink coats.
Activists who attended the San Jose trial said they were undaunted by the verdict and would continue to publicize the issue of how circus animals are treated.
"The more people who know what goes on behind the Big Top, the less people will want to attend," said Robert Reder, a spokesman for the Humane Society of the United States.
Kenneth Feld, the CEO of Feld Entertainment and producer of the Ringling Brothers circus, said the jury's verdict was a rebuke to activists who had sought to ruin "the good name and integrity of an innocent young man with an impeccable record."
"They clearly tried to promote their radical views by attacking the most famous family name in circus history," Feld said in a statement.
"A small group of extremists does not have the right ... to prevent the majority, who want to see animals in circuses, from doing so," he said.
ELEPHANT SEEMED IN PAIN
Santa Clara county prosecutors brought the charge against Gebel after several witnesses, including a San Jose police sergeant and two Humane Society investigators, said they saw Asia lurch forward in pain after Gebel prodded her with the hooked implement known as an ankus in an effort to get her into the circus ring quickly.
The witnesses testified that the ankus left a bloody, coin-sized wound on the elephant's leg, although the animal was never examined by an independent veterinarian and later pictures of its leg did not appear to show a wound.
McManis, dismissing the prosecution's witnesses as "activists with an agenda", said the elephant was in fine health and had not suffered.
Gebel said he was heartened and relieved by the verdict, but concerned that the animal rights movement would seek to capitalize on the case.
"It is absolutely absurd that we are standing here," Gebel said in his first public comments on the case. "Bad publicity is how they try to get across their message."
Gebel, who has traded in his glitzy circus costumes for somber suits during this week's brief trial, said he had done nothing wrong and would not alter his training methods.
