Elephant forced to give

rides to tourists tramples

handler to death

Elephant handler Enock Kufandada, centre, was killed by Mbanje,

 left (Picture: Adventure Zone)

An elephant forced to give tourists rides at a

 major resort has trampled his handler to death.

Enock Kufandada, 50, worked for the tour operator Adventure Zone in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, 

for more than a decade before he was killed 

by the bull elephant Mbanje.

Mbanje had been let out to graze alongside

 the company’s other elephant, a female called

Nkanyezi. The pair had been giving rides to 

tourists earlier in the day.

However, the 30-year-old bull elephant 

then turned and unexpectedly charged 

at Kufandada.

Mbanje was then shot and killed by 

Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife 

Management Authority rangers.

Enock Kufandada, centre, had worked at Adventure Zone as

 a handler for over a decade (Picture: Adventure Zone)

Brent Williamson, who owns and runs Adventure

Zone, said he was ‘shocked’ at what had happened,

adding that it is with ‘deep regret… that our 

domesticated elephant bull, Mbanje, charged 

at one of our staff, which resulted in one of our

 guides losing his life’.

‘Captured elephants which were used by several

tourist companies have killed quite a few people

in recent years,’ she told the Telegraph. But many 

animal welfare workers, including the Zimbabwe

 National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty

 to Animals (ZNSPCA), warn that elephants

can never be domesticated.

‘We should not be surprised when there are 

tragedies after elephants are captured in the

wild when they are young, and taken from 

their families. Teaching a young elephant to

 get onto its knees so that people can mount 

it is vicious, it’s cruel.’

The resort is in Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe 

(Picture: AFP/Getty Images)

The incident has echoes of Tilikum, the killer 

whale who attacked his trainer at SeaWorld, was

 featured in the documentary ‘Blackfish’, and led to the downfall of the captive orca industry.

Rides, massages, basketball games and other

‘tricks’ elephants are forced to perform in tourist 

resorts are the result of years of abuse.

With phajaan, elephants are usually stolen from 

their parents as babies, tied up and crammed 

into tiny pens, and emotionally and physically 

tortured until their spirits completely break. In 

order to tame or ‘domesticate’ an elephant, 

handlers will kidnap them at a young age and

put them through ‘phajaan’, or ‘elephant crushing’.

Once the elephant becomes completely 

subservient to their trainer, they are then taught

 to perform rides and tricks for tourists, or to 

put on shows at specialist camps or temples.