The owner of a circus elephant said he was disgusted when he saw secretly-filmed footage of a groom striking her with a pitchfork.
Bobby Roberts, who is on trial along with his wife, Moira, for allegedly causing the elderly elephant unnecessary suffering, said his employee's treatment of the animal was "disgraceful".
Roberts told Northampton crown court that he would have taken action if he had known that Anne the elephant was being badly treated. He also revealed he would give the elephant brandy when she was a little off-colour and would feed her candy floss.
Bobby and Moira Roberts are accused of failing to stop an employee from repeatedly beating Anne. The court watched footage, filmed by the animal rights activists Animal Defenders International, which seems to show the elephant being kicked and hit with a pitchfork at the circus's winter quarters in Cambridgeshire.
The prosecution has also claimed that 58-year-old Anne was kept constantly chained to the ground and did not receive the medication she needed for arthritis.
Wearing a black jacket and purple waistcoat, Roberts, the 69-year-old owner of the Bobby Roberts Super Circus, told district judge David Chinnery that he did not know about the treatment allegedly being meted out to Anne.
He said: "It's disgraceful, disgusting. I can't tell you what I would have done. The police would have been involved. Still now when I think about it, it goes through me, I just can't believe it."
Roberts told the court he was unaware that Anne had been constantly chained and that the groom, who is believed to have returned home to Romania, had not followed his instructions.
He admitted the elephant would be chained up at times but said his instructions were that the animal be let loose behind an electric fence in a cordoned off area of the barn when possible or, if the weather was good, be taken to a field outside.
Roberts told the court: "I didn't know that she'd not been off. I was disgusted that we didn't know. Do you think I would have let it go on if I'd have known anything about it?"
When asked whether he ever allowed the use of any implements on his animals, Roberts said: "I would never ever have let anybody touch anything."
He also told the court he would often give the elephant brandy if she was "off-colour" and that Anne would be fed scraps such as apple peel and candy floss.
Roberts told the court that the elephant had been refusing to take aspirin prescribed for arthritis. He said: "I put the medicine in apples, bananas. She'd take it for about three days and then she would stop."
Bobby and Moira Roberts, of Oundle, Northamptonshire, are charged with causing the elephant unnecessary suffering by leaving her chained to the ground, failing to take steps to prevent an employee causing her suffering and failing to ensure the needs of the animal were met. They deny all the charges, brought under the Animal Welfare Act 2006.
The trial continues.