THE CITIZEN'S campaign to stop electric goads being used on elephants at Blackpool Zoo received a boost this week as a motion about their use was raised in the House of Commons.

Liberal Democrat Mike Hancock, MP for Portsmouth, raised an Early Day Motion (EDM) which recommended to the House that the use of electric goads on animals should be made a criminal offence.

At the same time the Zoo yesterday launched a blistering attack on the Captive Animal Protection Society (CAPS) asking for the resignation of three leading CAPS members, including Blackpool-based Patricia Simpson.

An interview in the Sunday Times on July 23 with Daphne Sheldrick, owner of a baby elephant farm in Kenya, revealed that she used a "small cattle prod" on a baby.

The farm is linked to the Care for the Wild Foundation, the founder of which is Bill Jordan, a director of CAPS. The Foundation is now under the direction of his son and the zoo is calling for their resignation.

In the Sunday Times Ms Sheldrick was quoted as saying: "The other day an orphan (baby elephant) called Edie rooted up flowers in my garden. I gave her a 'zing' on the bottom with a small cattle prod." She added: "It's important that the elephants realise they've done wrong."

A statement from Blackpool Zoo said: "Zoo staff are appalled that CAPS are ...applying double standards in their activities by condemning the Blackpool park while actively financing an African location that admits to using electric shock equipment on baby elephants."

At the beginning of the year The Citizen spearheaded an extensive campaign to ban the use of prods after CAPS claimed that American trainer, Scott Riddle, who was employed by the zoo at the time, was using the goads to make the elephants do tricks.

Now the zoo keeps the goads locked away and says they will only be used to protect keepers, with their use being carefully logged.

But animal experts said not only were the devices cruel, they also could cause the animal to build up a resistance to their use and eventually attack the person who was using them. The Commons motion also wants to ban a range of other practices used on animals, such as depriving them of food and water, physical punishment of any kind or insertion of any instrument into any bodily orifice, for example using hooks in the mouth.

Mr Hancock, who is a patron of the Captive Animals Protection Society (CAPS), raised the Commons motion at the end of October and it has since gained more than 30 signatures.

An Early Day Motion does not become law, but Mike said the purpose was to raise awareness to the point where it can be debated in the House of Commons.

He said in a sense the motion was the first rung on the ladder. "I've been involved with animal welfare for more than 30 years, in particular zoo animals. Their treatment is wholly unacceptable," he said.

Diane Westwood, executive director of CAPS, said she was delighted that the fight to stop the goading was taking a step further. She said: "It is only the start but we will fight until it becomes law, like it already is in California.

Blackpool Borough Councillor Doreen Holt said she was "delighted" before adding: "I hope that in future this will make the abuse of animals unacceptable."

Labour MP for Blackpool South Gordon Marsden also proposed an amendment to the motion recognising the council's ethics committee for the zoo, on which CAPS member Pat Simpson sits.

But he was wary, pointing out that EDMs are "only an expression of opinion" and "this is not exclusive to Blackpool Zoo, it is not an isolated case."

"What I think is important is that the Government is already making progress on these issues and a review of protocol and procedure at zoos is already under way," he added.

Patricia Simpson said on hearing the calls for her resignation: "I demand that the zoo prove I have ever condoned the use of electric goads."

Pictured here is one of Blackpool Zoo's elephants.