Just found this on a Swedish News Channel

Elephant Rampage

This blog about the event claims that the elephants in Thailand are fed Yabba to keep their hunger at bay.

Elephant was high on methamphetamine

Here's a tidied up 'Google translate' version of the blog.

The elephant was "high" on methamphetamine!

Wild elephants eat grass, leaves and water. Up to 300 kg is consumed daily ...

Elephants in captivity eat about 30 kg of hay, 10 kg carrots and 5-10 kg of bread per day. They drink between 100-300 liters of water depending on how hot it is.

Zoos also give the elephants vitamins and mineral supplements for them to be kind and nice to all visitors. This poor elephant, that went berserk in Phuket has certainly not been getting all the food it should per day to feel good! The poor elefantfösaren sells bananas for 20 baht to tourists who feed them to the hungry elephant. Most Thais who own an elephant can not afford all the food the elephant needs to feel good. The sad fact is that elephant owners do not allow tourists to feed the hungry elephant with their own bananas?! Many feed the elephants 'yaba', which is a very common drug and also not so difficult to find in Thailand! Yaba is translated into Swedish as "tokpiller" - methamphetamine. Feeding the elephants yaba makes them unaware of their hunger, but may "freak out" occasionally which is probably what happened in this case.

Of course it is terrible what happened to the Swedish tourists, but it ended all well and good this time ... What I hope is that the world may open their eyes and do something about these thousands of elephants in Thailand who suffer!

Personally, I think we would see more elephants 'freaking out' if the above claims are true.

Is it me or is Thailand getting more weird by the day ???

Elephants spaced out on Yaba attacking people

In Pattaya Retired-police official runs rampage in a police station with a meat cleaver

Phuket the hub of Indian weddings...

Never a dull moment in the LOS...LOL

I'd like to see the BIB do a urine drug test in this instance.

Good job they didn’t top up poor old Nelly on Viagra… broken leg would have been the least of this guys worries, he could have ended up with an ass like a clown’s pocket!

To me it sounds odd the claim that they feed methamphetamine to an elephant for the purpose of appetite suppression.

Mostly, because it would seem to me, that the food an elephant would eat would be much cheaper than constantly buying it methamphetamine.

Also, if you did that, you would end up with a very skinny unhealthy looking elephant which would seem bad for making tourist money.

To me it sounds odd the claim that they feed methamphetamine to an elephant for the purpose of appetite suppression.

Mostly, because it would seem to me, that the food an elephant would eat would be much cheaper than constantly buying it methamphetamine.

Also, if you did that, you would end up with a very skinny unhealthy looking elephant which would seem bad for making tourist money.

+1

It doesn't really add up. Also, the "which is probably what happened in this case" just means the author has absolutely no evidence to back up his claims.

I have no idea the cost of the drug in LOS nor the quantity to get a person high. dam_n multiply the quantity by the elephants weight....I think hay would be much cheaper. The quantity and frequency for the need of the drug would only increase.

This whole story of generalization for most elephants on drugs in LOS is a bit dodgy.

Sounds like an animal activist twist to an explanation.

The way they work/parade the elephants 7 days a week, I doubt that a elephant in must is given a few days off. Jumbo can get kind of upset, quickly, during this time.

he could have ended up with an ass like a clown’s pocket!

I like it. I would have said like King Kongs nostril, but probably not sufficient in this case.

So why hasn't it appeared in the Thai press? Even if the pachyderm wasn't trippin' it's trunk off the tourist's busted leg would have made at least some local news.

It wasn't me

So why hasn't it appeared in the Thai press? Even if the pachyderm wasn't trippin' it's trunk off the tourist's busted leg would have made at least some local news.

Erm.. Not seen the multiple news pieces and forum threads on it then ??

I too dont think the yabba idea makes any sense.. Financially or ability to control them.

According to the news it is somewhere around the 300 baht price for a tab. That would mean at an elephants weight it seems it would be cheaper to feed the animal. Maybe the author is a tweeker & thought it would be a good idea to start this nonsense. That & most animals would most likely not eat the food as it tastes pretty funky. Doesn't add up- besides if you didn't feed the animal it might do this anyway. Not being cared for has a way of bringing out the worst in animals that are dependent on their owners for care.

I agree with the BS opinion. It would cost much more to keep the animal hopped up than it would cost to feed it.

Here is an interesting article describing the elephants current situation in Thailand. Point 4. under 'Problems" does actually mention them being fed amphetamines, not to suppress their hunger, but to enable them to work longer hours working in the logging industry.

I have often heard that the 'City' Elephants are drugged to keep them calm in the hectic environment. I would imagine feeding them amphetamine would have the opposite effect.

Edited January 29, 201016 yr by lordsux

is this a real elephant or are we talking about a patpong girl?

Do you think that the tigers at the well known temple are given weed to keep them chilled out? Is Thailand a nation of druged out animals

I would advise staying away from any of these animals, they are not that far removed from the wild. Years ago on a day trek went to the elephant camp and they had a baby that you could feed bananas to well when the bananas were gone the little bugger got a bit out of hand. I was watching this from a safe distance the little french girl feeding the baby almost got trampled.

Elephants, in the wild,have to eat a lot of grass and other such stuff because the nutritonial value isn't that good.

Do you think that the tigers at the well known temple are given weed to keep them chilled out? Is Thailand a nation of druged out animals

Not drugged as such but a good few years back I went to the Sriracha tiger zoo with my, then, missus. She wanted to have her photo take with the tiger so while this was happening I had a little scratch around (as I am prone to do). Stuck around the back of one of the columns was a can of chloroform and some rags.

Well I suppose it's better than getting the customers mauled but hardly in the animal's best interests.