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POLICE and the RSPCA have launched a joint investigation after footage surfaced of a circus worker striking an elephant with a pitch fork.

Pressure group Animal Defenders International released the shocking video of 57-year-old Asian elephant Anne’s ordeal.

It was secretly filmed earlier this year in a barn in Polebrook, Northants.

Bobby’s Super Circus looks after the animal and owners Bobby and Moira Roberts said they reacted with “shock and horror” to the retired elephant’s abuse.

Mrs Roberts, 72, said the worker in the footage had ­disappeared from the circus one night – possibly to his home in Eastern Europe.

She said: “We wish we had been given the opportunity to prosecute him and hand him over to the police.”

Jan Creamer, Animal Defenders International’s chief executive, said: “Anne’s tragic story symbolises the plight of circus animals and is a shocking indictment of the circus industry.”