No More Accident's. The "Nuremberg Defense" has now been discovered: Elephant Was Following Circus Order!!!!

A witness to the fatal accident at Franklin Zoo says the elephant was triggered to kneel down, crushing her keeper, by what appeared to be a misinterpreted circus command: "down".
"Put me down, Mila," the keeper, Dr Helen Schofield, was heard saying as she patted the elephant's head.
Mila obeyed by going down on her knees - crushing Dr Schofield.
"The elephant didn't attack the lady. The elephant was in a circus mode. It was following commands," said the zoo visitor, who did not want to be named.
He said the elephant had seemed to him to have acted as if she were performing a circus trick.
Dr Schofield, Franklin Zoo's owner and director, was killed on Anzac Day after two years' nursing the animal with the hope of getting her into an overseas sanctuary.
Authorities and animal welfare groups are now working out the future for the elephant, who was born in Africa before being taken into zoos in London and Honolulu.

She later spent 30 years in a New Zealand circus.
The witness said he wanted to dispel any impression that Mila had any problems under Dr Schofield's care.
An electric fence, which was earlier raised as the possible source of Mila's agitation on the day, was not near the pair, he said. And Dr Schofield had not run - she slowly backed away once she realised that being in the enclosure was not safe.
He did not know why the elephant picked up Dr Schofield, he said.
The witness, for whom English is a second language, gave a clarifying statement to police about what happened.
Auckland Zoo senior vet Richard Jakob-Hoff said elephants were intelligent animals with all the range of emotions that people had.
But their sheer size made them dangerous, and Auckland Zoo's female elephant, Burma, had been taught her instructions in Hindi to avoid inadvertent commands, Dr Jakob-Hoff said.
Mila was born in the wild in 1973, but at nine months she was taken into captivity at London Zoo. She ended up at Honolulu Zoo for a brief period before the Whirling Brothers Circus brought her to New Zealand in 1978.
Her then-owner, Tony Ratcliffe, said Mila had been bullied by another elephant in Honolulu.
Despite receiving criticism from animal activist groups, Mr Ratcliffe recalls positively the elephant's 30 years' touring with the circus under her stage name Jumbo.
When Mila was retired Mr Ratcliffe tried to get Mila into a zoo here or in Australia but could not find a space.
So she spent two years with another circus as a "walk-on" special guest - without performing tricks - before Dr Schofield was able to take her into Franklin Zoo in late 2009.
Dr Schofield bought the zoo in 2005 when it was in need of a new owner and she saw its animals wanting for better care.
She told Radio New Zealand two years ago that Mr Ratcliffe had been "fantastic" during Mila's transition to the Franklin Zoo.
The elephant was described as "jumpy" when she arrived but is said to have become pacified under Dr Schofield's care.
Auckland Zoo staff are helping care for Mila, while the SPCA and the Ministry for Agriculture and Fisheries are trying to work out her future.
Dr Schofield had been in talks with California-based sanctuary Paws, which said Mila was still welcome.

Courtesy of Jim Stockley

'Jim Stockley will be forever credited with discovering the brilliant "Nuremberg Defense" for elephants,(I can see it working for Killer Whales as well) thus eliminating the need for accidents, which has been viewed skeptically by real expert's of animal behavior around the world:

A witness to the fatal accident at Franklin Zoo says the elephant was triggered to kneel down, crushing her keeper, by what appeared to be a misinterpreted circus command: "down".
"Put me down, Mila," the keeper, Dr Helen Schofield, was heard saying as she patted the elephant's head.
Mila obeyed by going down on her knees - crushing Dr Schofield.
The elephant didn't attack the lady. The elephant was in a circus mode. It was following commands............'

Superior Order, often called the Nuremberg Defense is a plea in a court of law that a soldier not be held guilty for actions which were ordered by a superior officer.  The superior orders plea is similar to the doctrine of respondeat superior in tort law where a superior is held liable for the actions of a subordinate, and the subordinate may escape liability.  The superior orders plea is often regarded as the complement to Command Responsibility.

Here are two major problems with the Nuremberg Defense, unless an elephant attack can be declared a military action, and depending on what country/state the trial is held.  First, respondeat superior states that, in many circumstances, an employer is responsible for the actions of employees performed within the course of their employment.  This rule is also called the "Master-Servant Rule", recognized in both common law and civil law jurisdictions.   So who was responsible for Jumbo/Mila's actions?  Past employer the circus, or currently employer the Franklin zoo?  Second, Command Responsibility.  Who was in command of Jumbo/Mila that day?  Who gave the command/order, Tony Ratcliffe or Dr Schofield, regardless of what Jumbo/Mila "misinterpreted?"


 Auckland Zoo senior vet Richard Jakob-Hoff is already trying to delay any future proceedings by saying   Auckland Zoo's female elephant, Burma, had been taught her instructions in Hindi to avoid inadvertent commands(First of all that is bs, and that is not why she was taught Hindu commands.  She was taught Hindu commands, for the same reason GGW's elephants were taught German Commands.  It was the trainers language.  My current group of "Mexican" tigers don't comprehend a word of Spanish.)  Regardless, what the good Dr. has evoked is extempore simultaneous interpretation, and as English is the key witness's second language, regardless of the "Hindu" bs, he may have an argument.   The Nuremberg Trials employed four official languages: English, German, French, and Russian.  In order to address the complex linguistic issues that clouded over the proceedings, interpretation  and translation departments had to be established. However, it was feared that consecutive interpretation would slow down the proceedings significantly. What is therefore unique in both the Nuremberg tribunals and history of the interpretation profession was the introduction of an entirely new technique, extempore simultaneous interpretation. This technique of interpretation requires the interpreter to listen to a speaker in a source (or passive) language and orally translate that speech into another language in real time, that is, simultaneously, through headsets and microphones.'

Other witness's saw this:

 Mila put her head down and advanced, slowly at first, but then with increasing speed. Dr Schofield turned and ran - but tripped about a metre from the enclosure's exit.

The Herald understands Mila, who is estimated to weigh three tonnes, used her trunk to pull her back by the leg, wrapped her trunk around the vet's midsection, and picked her up.
Onlookers said Dr Schofield was able to speak and calmly called the command to put her down.
Mila eventually knelt and pushed her trunk down on a bank in the enclosure, as Dr Schofield asked to be let go.
When Mila finally released her she was still talking and was seen to move. Mila backed away but then moved towards her again and repeatedly brushed her trunk up against her - and she didn't move again.

'With the exception of "brushed", slammed being more appropriate, anybody who has been the recipient of an elephant head stand,( I have been the "lucky" recipient of 3 of the sob's) will know exactly what these witness's just described.   An elephant with it's head down, trunk curled back is like a cocked pistol.  It has one intent, and one intent only.  Discharge.  It is not an accident, it is 100% intent. '

1. Vet tripped fleeing charging elephant
2. Ex-owner: 'Ignorance' killed keeper
3. Claim elephant mentally damaged
4. Vet crushed to death by elephant