Cape Town — Removing elephants from the wild and breaking them in for use as safari animals for tourists is unacceptable, the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism was told.

This message was sent by animal lovers ahead of last Friday's deadline for public comment on the department's draft "Norms and standards for elephant management in SA".

They argue that, in their current form, these regulations allow for permits to be issued for individual elephants to be removed from family herds in the wild and to be "broken" and trained for use in elephant-back safaris and circuses.

The capture of wild elephants and the use of orphans in the elephant-back safari industry after controversial training, has evoked a particularly strong public reaction in the past - notably with the "Tuli" elephants captured in Botswana in 1998 whose subsequent handling led to criminal convictions in South Africa.

But animal lovers like biologist Mandy Lombard of Sedgefield believe the draft norms and standards in their present form will not stop abuse.

Lombard was among those lobbying other animal lovers to also respond.

"This practice is unacceptable, cruel and unethical, and has been condemned by elephant behavioural specialists, the National SPCA and is contrary to international norms," she said.

The critics also object strongly to the breaking and training of elephants caught from the wild for use as work animals, such as elephant-back safaris and circuses, and for zoos.

"The case of genuine orphans should not be allowed to be used as a loophole for capture from the wild, and should be treated as an exception where gentle habituation - not domination training - is used in taming the orphan ."

Elephants already in captivity in SA - believed to number about 100 - should be allowed to live in sanctuary situations and not be forced to perform unnaturally, they said.

"They should not be subjected to ongoing training and discipline to make them safe for interaction with tourists.

"The 'elephant training and keeping industry' has to date not proven that this can be done without cruelty.

"Training methods that involve chaining of elephants, cabling to tame and re-train, ankuses (spiked rods), the use of sharp ear hooks, water fear - hobbling elephants by the ankles in deep water while trainers sit on them or repeated splashing or hosing the elephants' heads - sleep deprivation, and so on, must be specifically prohibited in these norms and standards."

The introduction of the new "Threatened or Protected Species" regulations that were due to have come into effect on June 1, has been delayed to February next year, Environmental Affairs and Tourism Van Schalkwyk has announced.

He did not give specific reasons for the delay, but it is believed to aimed at avoiding any possible legal challenges from existing permit holders.

The regulations, under the Biodiversity Act, were announced by Van Schalkwyk at a media event on Table Mountain in February.

The draft "Norms and standards" for elephant management are also promulgated under this act.

Most of the attention then was focused on the regulations aimed at stopping "canned" hunting of predators like lions and leopards, and the use of cross-bows to hunt animals like rhinos and elephants and all big predators.

But the regulations are part of a suite of measures aimed at cleaning up the hunting industry.