Elephant exports to China spark protests

The Zimbabwe government has come under renewed attack after it exported four elephants to China.

Environmentalists say the future of the young elephants is bleak because they had been separated from their family units.

"The elephants were transported by road, a trip that took 12 hours from Hwange to Harare Airport where they were loaded into an airplane and flown to Dubai," the Zimbabwe Conservation Taskforce (ZCT) said.

"This flight took 10 hours and from Dubai, they were allegedly flown to Beijing."

ZCT said the elephants weighed a combined 3, 9 tons which implies that they were very young.

"The fact that these elephants are juveniles indicate that they are being taken away from their mothers and family units are therefore being destroyed," the animal rights group said.

"It is further reported that another 14 elephants are being held in Hwange (National Park), also awaiting exportation in January 2013.

"It is said that the final destinations of the elephants are two zoos in China.

"We are very concerned because we believe this constitutes cruelty to animals."

The Hwange game reserve, the largest in the country has more than 30 000 elephants.

ZCT said some elephants do not survive the long trips and that it feared those that survived will be subjected to a life of captivity in the Chinese zoo.

Gifts to the king
"It is a well known fact that Zimbabwe has a serious poaching problem and to compound that, live animals are also being sent out of the country," the group added.

The Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority confirmed sending the four elephants to a zoo in China but defended the move saying the exports were above board.

The authority said it had also received orders to export elephants to the Democratic Republic of Congo, United States, Ukraine and France.

"The elephants were accompanied by a parks official and met Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species requirements on live wild animal exports," the authority said.

"The elephants were airlifted after the Authority, assisted by a wildlife veterinarian assessed their intended destination and was satisfied."

Last year, President Robert Mugabe donated three elephants to China after the Asian giant helped his wife to build an orphanage for 1 000 children near Harare.

Two years ago conservationists also protested after the government sent o 18 month old elephants to the late North Korean leader Kim Jong II as presents.

The elephants were captured from the wild along with pairs of Zebras, giraffes and several species of antelopes.