Wild Animal Park Visitor Recalls Seeing Elephant Undergoing a Beating in 1985

A La Jolla man who visited the San Diego Wild Animal Park in 1985 said he saw a keeper use an ax handle to beat an elephant repeatedly over the eyes and trunk. He said he wrote a letter of complaint about the incident to park officials, who promised to investigate.

Peter Van Eepoel, 56, an insurance executive, said he later met with Alan Roocroft, the supervisor in charge of elephants, who said he would ensure that such an incident “would never happen again.” Roocroft told him the employee had been identified, but could not be fired because of union rules, Van Eepoel said.

Officials of the Wild Animal Park and its parent organization, the Zoological Society of San Diego, said Thursday that they can find no record of the complaint, and neither Roocroft nor any other official recalls it.

Was ‘Incensed’

Yet Van Eepoel, who said he was “incensed” by the beating, produced a copy of the letter he said he sent to the Zoological Society in 1985. He also produced photographs of his wife, himself and Roocroft which he said he took in February, 1985, during the five-hour session at the park when Roocroft explained the results of his investigation into the complaint.

Roocroft is at the center of a controversy over the handling of an African elephant called Dunda, who allegedly was chained, pulled to the ground and beaten on the head with ax handles for several days last February. Roocroft led the team of keepers who transferred Dunda from the San Diego Zoo to the Wild Animal Park last Feb. 16 and conducted “disciplinary” sessions with the elephant in a barn at the park.

The San Diego city attorney’s office has received a report about the 1988 incident from the San Diego Humane Society and is considering whether to press criminal charges of animal cruelty.

No One Recalls Complaint

Martha Baker, manager of public relations for the Wild Animal Park, said park officials do not claim that Van Eepoel had never lodged a complaint, but only that no one recalls it. She said no employee has ever been disciplined for beating elephants and that there are no similar complaints on file.

Van Eepoel said he was satisfied with Roocroft’s response in 1985, but began to doubt the story in recent weeks because of the latest allegations about Roocroft. He contacted The Times to describe the 1985 incident after reading about the current controversy.

Van Eepoel said the incident he saw occurred on Jan. 27, 1985, while he, his wife Brenda, and two friends from Texas were taking the monorail ride at the Wild Animal Park. He said the group and others on the monorail noticed six or seven elephants in a staging area near the Asian elephant show arena, out of view of the public attending the show.

“One of the trainers was there,” Van Eepoel said. “He was just beating the hell out of an elephant. He hit it across the trunk. He hit it two or three times across the eyes--right flat across the eyes-- with an ax handle.

Hit Elephant Across Eyes

“He hit it across the eyes with both hands just as hard as he could, just time after time after time,” he said.

“I stood up on the train and screamed, ‘Stop beating that elephant!’ ”

Van Eepoel said he was unsure whether the handler heard him, and that the beating continued until the monorail train disappeared behind the trees and he could no longer see the handler.

“The people on the train around us, including the children, just couldn’t believe it. . . . They were speechless.”

Brenda Van Eepoel, 42, confirmed her husband’s version of the incident, as well as their meeting with Roocroft about a month later at the Wild Animal Park.

Confirms Story

Warren J. Kwedar, 66, a retired insurance executive from Houston, also confirmed the story in a telephone interview. Kwedar was one of the Van Eepoels’ friends who accompanied them to the park.

Kwedar said he saw a handler “beating the you-know-what out of an elephant, across the face, across the eyes, just hammering the hell out of him.”

Kwedar said Van Eepoel sent him a copy of the complaint letter in 1985. Kwedar added that he would be willing to “make a deposition” about the incident.

In his letter, addressed to Charles Bieler, then executive director of the Zoological Society, Van Eepoel wrote that he observed a handler “exercise a fit of rage in the form of a severe, prolonged beating of one of your animals.” He said he could provide the exact time and location of the incident, as well as a description of the handler.

“This was a disgraceful display of a man’s rage--not simple discipline,” Van Eepoel wrote. “I’m sure that many children witnessed this incident,” he added.

Doesn’t Recall Letter

Bieler, who now works in the research department of the Zoological Society, said he does not recall the letter and added that it might have been forwarded to his successor, who took over in 1985.

Sheldon Campbell, the late president of the society’s board of trustees, also received a copy of the letter and promised a full investigation, Van Eepoel said. Campbell died later that year and his files could not be located this week.