Elephant Abu could kill again—warning

Press, 16 September 1987, Page 10

Elephant Abu could kill again—warning

NZPA-AAP Sydney A Taronga Zoo veterinarian, Gary Reddacliff, warned yesterday that a circus elephant, Abu, who killed a third person this week, could kill again.

"It is not unusual for elephants to become attached to one person, and it’s not unusual for them to become dangerous to others when the trainer is not around,” Mr Reddacliff said.

However, he said there was no need to kill Abu if she was handled only by her trainer.

“But there is always the risk she could kill again unless the safety precautions are taken,” he told AAP yesterday.

Mr Reddacliff said the Ashton's Circus elephant should be approached solely by its trainer, and kept away from others by a demountable enclosure.

Meanwhile, the police released the name of the circus’s horse trainer who became the third victim on Monday of the largest elephant in Australia. George Robert Littlejohn, aged 51, was

crushed to death by Abu when he walked into the elephant’s enclosure at 5.30 p.m. — an hour before the circus started in the northern New South Wales town of Gunnedah.

Gunnedah police con- • stable Mick Bostock said Mr Littlejohn “shouldn’t have been where he was.”

The police were preparing a report for the coroner concerning the death. Abu’s first victim was a 38-year-old Melbourne truck driver, Doug LaingSmith, who was crushed as he was leading Abu from his truck in 1974.

She reportedly had become startled by young boys riding mini-bikes in a field where the circus animals had been grazing. In 1983, Abu struck again, crushing a 22-year-old clown, Debbie Wirth, of Katoomba, west of Sydney.

Miss Wirth was rewarding- the elephant with bread after it had pulled a bogged truck out of a paddock at Vermont South, Melbourne, where Ashton’s Circus was setting up.