Berserk Elephant Kills Swiss Tourist, Injures Three In Phang Nga

[andrewdrummond]

The safety bars at Nong Nooch were installed after a tragic incident in which three British tourists were gored some years ago, One young women died, her sister was scarred for life and the father also sustained injuries. The broken father fought years through the Thai courts to get compensation and was shocked at seeing the massive wealth demonstrated by top of the range sports cars outside the company's offices.

The company staff blamed tourists (not the Brits) for causing a commition which startled the elephant. At the end of the day Pattaya court awarded him a mere 2 million baht, well under the cost of any one of the cars, much of which was swallowed in legal expenses flight etc. After the case the judge called in the press and TV (ITV UK represented by a local service) to explain that he was sorry the award was so low but in Thailand courts did not award much in damages, not like the west. This was about the time Shin Corp was suing Supinya Klanyarong for 1 billion baht libel for suggesting that the company was being given favours by its owner PM Thaksin Shinawata. If you take an elephent ride you have to weight up the risks. They are small.....but if something happens there is little you can do

The closest I got with an elephant was at Nong Nuch Gardens where I went with my wife and our first born son. I have to admit that I put my son in danger when I let him feed the elephants, but one must consider the situation when you are married to a Thai family. Thais will not listen to reason -- and it would only take a screaming kid for them to back down. Unfortunately, my son absolutely loved the big looming giant. That said, the elephant was behind a well-secured fence, and despite my own skepticism, the elephants seemed to be in a good mood.

But hell, was ~I~ on high alert!

I was always afraid that at any moment that elephant could swing it's trunk and do its damage, so after a few bananas, I told my wife, that's enough -- they've had their fun, wave good bye to the ellies and give them some space!

I would never think of riding on any animal, much less an elephant. My reasons for being extremely cautious with them aren't from the reports of accidents here in Thailand either -- but rather the ones from back home in the US! I've seen videos of circus animals going berserk and they're pretty horrid.

Kudos to that link to the Elephant Nature Foundation. I have to add that that's one well-designed website (CSS and all). They obviously know what they're doing.

[brianlg]

Huge animals exploited and abused with sharp hooks- no good can come of it. How utterly horrid for that woman, trampled to death. RIP

Please people, do not patronize these awful animal attractions

I have worked with elephants [Asian and African] for over 30 years both in circuses and zoos in Australia and New Zealand.

I have been an International Volunteer at The Thai Elephant Conservation Center [near LAMPANG] in far northern Thailand for the past ten years. I work almost exclusively with BULL [male] elephants at the Center and from the general nature of this report it is indicated that the elephant in question was almost certainly in MUSTH [a hormone imbalance which renders them virtually uncontrollable].

After many years of record keeping and other scientific investigation this naturally occurring condition can now be treated and controlled to a large extent by alteration of daily feeding and diet.

IF this was the case this animal should NOT have been used on the day as it would be definitely UNSAFE to do so.

Musth can last from several days [if noticed early and diet altered appropriately] to several weeks [in severe cases and not treated] . There are owners and handlers [mahouts] seriously injured or killed almost every year in Thailand by musth elephants; and especially in INDIA where incidents appear more frequent as owners continue to use the elephants [whilst in musth] in religious parades amongst huge crowds mainly due to it would seem financial considerations as the people are so poor ; and these elephants support entire families; and for traditional values.

RIP to the unfortunate Swiss lady ...

[61guitarman61]

I remember seeing a couple on an elephant in Samui as it was running down the road and then dove into the jungle...mahout running crazy behind them. The couple was screaming and hanging on for dear life.

Hopefully, legal action will follow this...but we shall see.

RIP to the poor Swiss woman....

Dove?

Proper past tense of dive. Also correct: dived.

[61guitarman61]

With fullest sympathy to the deceased and her family, I don't understand the kneejerk reaction to elephants being used for entertainment purposes.

More people are killed by pet dogs than captive elephants. More farmers are killed by their hogs. More people are killed by horses. Last year, I was stuck in traffic while they loaded up an unfortunate 14 year old girl who was killed when a horse kicked her. Sad day, to be sure.

On Discovery last night, there was a show where they were taking Russian elephants out of a zoo to put them out into the wild in Africa, and one elephant backed up and killed the 50 year old woman handler who had raised the elephant since it was a baby.

Things happen. But to protect ourselves from all animal danger, we would need to ban all human contact with cows, dogs, horses, hogs, etc. And we might as well get add cars, buses, and planes to the list as well.

Once again, this post is no disrespect to the deceased. My condolences are with her family.

"Things happen. But to protect ourselves from all animal danger, we would need to ban all human contact with cows, dogs, horses, hogs, etc. And we might as well get add cars, buses, and planes to the list as well." Well.... if you beat a cow or a horse or a dog that sucker will probably go berzerk some day too. Transversely, if you beat a car or a plane or bus it will not go out of its way to get you back.

You miss the whole point of what many posters are saying. That being the rights of the animals to not be exploited/abused for the purpose of entertaining human beings. If a dog attacks and kills the human who has been beating it I would applaud the dog. If one of these elephants reaches the boiling point after years of being beat and stabbed about the head with an iron pick axe, I do not feel sympathy for the people who allow, nay, encourage such treatment through their endorsement in the form of being "entertained" by these great beasts. I am not a green peacer and I do not actively soapbox about these issues normally, but the real reason this tragedy occurred is all at the hands of human beings. I hold the elephants blameless as they should not be placed in such a situation in the first place. We humans have no right.

Edited February 24, 2011 by 61guitarman61

[sangfroid]

I remember seeing a couple on an elephant in Samui as it was running down the road and then dove into the jungle...mahout running crazy behind them. The couple was screaming and hanging on for dear life.

Hopefully, legal action will follow this...but we shall see.

RIP to the poor Swiss woman....

Dove?

Yes Dove!!

—Usage note

Both dived and dove are standard as the past tense of dive. Dived, historically the older form, is somewhat more common in edited writing, but dove occurs there so frequently that it also must be considered standard: The rescuer dove into 20 feet of icy water. Dove is an Americanism that probably developed by analogy with alternations like drive, drove and ride, rode. It is the more common form in speech in the northern United States and in Canada, and its use seems to be spreading. The past participle of dive is always dived.

[mouche]

Huge animals exploited and abused with sharp hooks- no good can come of it. How utterly horrid for that woman, trampled to death. RIP

Please people, do not patronize these awful animal attractions

Absolutely 100% !

Yes I agree 100 % Some of them should have the right to rest in the jungle for their old age or damages caused by men and cars !!!

[mouche]

And God blessed them...

Agree 100 % ! Very sad for these friendly animals who should live in family as they use to in nature.

www.bring-the-elephant-home.org

Edited February 24, 2011 by Maestro
Reduced quoted text. No need to quote the entire text of multiple posts.

[humqdpf]

I hear everything that you are saying about not taking elephant treks, not being near elephants etc but doesn't this miss the real point, which is that MALE ELEPHANTS ARE DANGEROUS BECAUSE THEY SUFFER FROM "MOST." This condition, also known as Musth, involves huge amounts of testosterone entering the males blood.

Adult males should be kept away from humans or at least to have a vet with a tranquilizer gun on site to watch for signs of Must. This is what they did at the recent elephant festival in Sayabury in Laos.

It is nothing short of idiocy to have an adult male involved in trekking.

[luckizuchinni]

"Things happen...

And you are cherry picking. Dogs, horse, hogs, cows, all kill people without being "beaten." The girl who I watched being loaded up in an ambulance was kicked while walking in back of a tethered horse. I grew up in Missouri, and I know of at least two farmers who were killed while slopping their hogs. Bulls have gone berserk while merely being led and killed people.

In Thailand, like it or not, there are thousands of unemployed elephants. Elephants are long lived, and what with the lumber industry being cut way back, the animals and their mahouts have no way to work. Some beg in the streets. Others give tourists rides. I would rather have them in a junlge setting giving rides than walking around Bangkok.

And there are too many for the few sanctuaries. They can't all be released into the wild, either. Like it or not, unless you wanted to euthanize them all, something has to be done to care for them. And for that to happen, money has to be made.

A couple of posters who know about elephants have written about must, and if that was the case, this was very wrong and the operators should be held doubly accountable. But specific abuse should not throw our what I see as a basically reasonable solution to the numbers of domesticated elephants which exist in Thailand.

Edited February 24, 2011 by Maestro
Reduced quoted text. No need to quote the entire text of multiple posts.

[61guitarman61]

i fully agree, dont feed elephants avoid all attractions with elephants! Not just for your own safety but also for the protection of these animals (they are animals indeed not toys or machines)

Better to let the thousands of domestic elephants in Thailand starve to death than to make them give rides to tourists

Ha ha ha!! The lesser of two evils, right? Don't know about you, but I would rather die of starvation, (not that starvation is a real risk elephants would face in the wild by the way) than be beaten with those cute little pick axe implements on my head, chained, fed whatever the handler thinks I should eat, (or deserve to eat on a given day) humiliated by these ant size creatures climbing onto my back and being made to walk about all day wherever someone else wants me to go for as long as this entity wants me to walk. What gives you the right to do that to another creature? Big topic I know, but these are not flies that one would swat because they are a nuisance. These are 4,000 or 6,000 lb. creatures with intellects only slightly lower than our own.

Show me an elephant who comes in and volunteers his/her services to give rides for food or perhaps just because they think it would be fun.

[animatic]

The Phuket Gazette called the Chalong-based company this morning, but the operator said the management found it inconvenient to make a comment at that time.

Say it all.

[yesdavy]

RIP

Very sad story but you are taking some risk climbing on the back of an elephant

And the risk for providing the opportunity and enticing people to pay money to get on the elephants?

[BOS2BKK]

Huge animals exploited and abused with sharp hooks- no good can come of it. How utterly horrid for that woman, trampled to death. RIP

Please people, do not patronize these awful animal attractions

That is the most ridiculous statement I think I have ever seen on this forum.

Large beasts of burden have been working side by side with man for thousands of years. Horses, water buffalo, elephants, dogs. Humans would be nothing without all of these animals, and at some time or another every one of these animals has snapped and attacked it's trainer. Just like every once in a while you get some office worker who goes off his rocker and shoots up his office.

There are literally thousands, maybe even tens of thousands of elephant rides taken in Thailand every day, and to see one incident every couple of years is not a sign of "poor abused animals". I have been many times, and would not hesitate to go again. Elephants are highly intelligent animals, with complex social interactions that are only barely understood by even the most experienced trainers. If you ACTUALLY READ the article, you would have seen that two male elephants got into a fight, it had nothing to do with the trainers, or the people riding, they were unfortunate victims.

That said there still may be an element of neglect because the elephants were male. It is well known that male elephants can become violent with little warning, and it is generally considered inappropriate to use them for this type of service after a certain age specifically because of incidents like this.

To try and exploit this tragedy by touting some nonsense "humans are the devil exploiting the world" agenda is in the poorest taste.

[61guitarman61]

And you are cherry picking...

Proximity to calculated or potential risk is truly at your own risk of course. Bulls and hogs have notoriously bad temperaments and care should be excercized when in an unptrotected environment with them. The girl you cited should obviously have had better instruction on horse behavior before being allowed to walk about in the danger zone. I've been around dogs my entire life and never once had a close call with a berzerk dog. To place blame for an animal's behavior on an animal that is not in their natural environment is rediculous. Pavlov proved this. Behavior is the result of human influence and therefore blame for badly behaving animals, in GENERAL, falls to the humans involved with that particular animal. And when outright physical and psychological abuse is present on a daily basis, it can be predicted and expected that, one day, the animal will reach a breaking point and snap. Rationalize man's superiority and therefore his right to dispense life treatment of these animals all you want, but we really have no right to determine what is best for another species, any more than we have the right to determine what is best for another human being's existence. If humans are cuasing problems with another creature's existence we have the responsibility to try to stop that activity, but we have not right to be lord and master of another creature. Makes the human feel powerful and "superior" while in this perceived "control" - that is until that sucker decides that today is the day he wants to go left instead of right or just gets fed up with having a perpetual headache from the "training hook" and decides to go for a little run, with or without permission from his "master". Then the humans realize how tiny and insignificant they really are.

Edited February 24, 2011 by Maestro
Reduced quoted text. No need to quote the entire text of multiple posts.

[61guitarman61]

That is the most ridiculous statement I think I have ever seen on this forum...

Sorry, but I stand by my statement that if humans were not on these animals in the first place they would not have been in any danger as the result of the two bulls blowing off steam in their natural environment. Period. So, if a human wants to take the risk, then ride! But never put the blame on the animal. And beating that poor animal on the head to the point of bloodying him for acting as he wants to is in the poorest taste also. No, actually, it's just plain wrong!!

Edited February 24, 2011 by Maestro
Reduced quoted text. No need to quote the entire text of multiple posts.

[tomartoh]

More people die each year from their domesticated dogs than they do from elephants. And horses are not domesticated but trained, yet people still ride them. But let's not miss a chance to bash Thailand and its people, eh?

what a stupid comment

[tim armstrong]

More people die each year from their domesticated dogs than they do from elephants. And horses are not domesticated but trained, yet people still ride them. But let's not miss a chance to bash Thailand and its people, eh?

Not quite true. Horses are very domesticated and have little resemblance to their wilder cousins. Dogs on the other hand have domesticated us -clever. But elephants, like horses, and some dogs are working animals and don't need to be constantly harrassed or paraded around for a bored public like a sideshow.. I don't think this is a Thailand bash at all. Elephants here like so many other countries national emblems are increasingly being forgotten. If you are an animal lover,you would probably be choosy about what animal attractions you see. But R.I.P. to the Swiss lady, a terrible accident.

[TAWP]

Just a note: The elephant didn't attack the people, it was fighting another elephant. All injuries came from people falling off the elephants [and afterward getting in the way of them running].

[jamora]

elephants were a traditional mode of transport in thailand for thousands years, they are not exactly domesticated, but trained to obey commands.

accidents do happen, like they do happen with horses, camels, buffalo and other animals used for travel.

sad story, but it's an exceptional, taking into account hundreds of thousands tourists taking trips every year and enjoying their experience. I don't think, that this accident would discourage many holidaymakers

And humans in cars...

[thailandadam]

It took 90 minutes to catch the elephant and calm it down...with the 2 tourists still on its back....Must have been some ride!!!!

Yeah, can you imagine? I rode on one elephant in Chiang Mai and it was very gentle, as the greater majority are. Albeit, I thought it was like a disneyland ride...and felt empty and disconnected from the animal. I have read about very intentional elephant camps in the north where the care for the animals is exemplary. If I ever go to any other elephant camp, I will be very selective on how to support these magnificent creatures.

[johncat1]

More people die each year from their domesticated dogs than they do from elephants. And horses are not domesticated but trained, yet people still ride them. But let's not miss a chance to bash Thailand and its people, eh?

I agree

It is just media sensationalism

Yet you hear very little about that beautiful beast the Tiger I find it so pitiful to see a tiger that is so obviously tranquillised so that tourists can be photographed stroking them or even sitting on them .

I always walk away from this sad sight and never agree to being photographed with such a magnificent creature that has been heavily sedated .

Also in Issan I often see van sellers with monkeys chained up to the vans / pick-up Just so they can attract people

In most towns you often see Elephants being used to beg ( money for food for the elephant )

When I am in a restaurant I often hear the whimpering cry of a poor Elephant as it tries to avoid the vehicles on the roads

Edited February 24, 2011 by johncat1

[luckizuchinni]

Ha ha ha!! ...

So you would rather die of starvation than work? Go without food for a week and see what you would be willing to do.

And do you eat pork? A pig is an extremely intelligent animal, so what gives you (or anyone) the right to raise them, then slaughter them so we can have our pad king moo?

So swatting a fly is OK, but an elephant is not? Where is the line of demarcation? At what size is it suddenly not OK to make use of an animal?

Don't get me wrong, I eat pork, and I swat mosquitoes, if not flies. It is just that your arguments are pretty illogical, in my opinion.

Edited February 24, 2011 by Maestro
Reduced quoted text. No need to quote the entire text of multiple posts.

[canuckamuck]

Riding elephants is uncomfortable and pointless. I am glad when visiting friends have already done it, so I won't have to waste my time once again. I think most people only do it once.

[anon10]

Ride a motorcycle instead !!!

[rammis35]

Even though this is a sad story and my sympathy goes out to the family, most of the post here make me laugh. I bet most of you here on TV are meat eaters and can come up with all kinds of excuses why the treatment of the animals we eat is alright or you just keep a blind eye to it since you benefit from it personally. But since you do not benefit from elephants being ridden it is a horrible thing and it should be shut down. If you think the treatment of the animals you eat is better then the treatment of the elephants here then maybe you should go out to the farms and ranches where they are raised and see how they are actually treated. And yes I do know what I am talking about since I worked on ranches in my younger days so I am sure I know more about this than those of you who've just read about it.

[luckizuchinni]

Proximity to calculated or potential risk is truly at your own risk of course...

No one, that I can see, is "blaming" the animals. (BOS2BKK, on the other hand, would "applaud" a dog who attacked a human, so how is that really different than "blaming" an animal?)

Like it or not, humans are the dominant species on earth. Along with only a few animals, elephants being one of them, we alone have the ability to change the environment, although we do it to a greater extent. And as people are not going to quit having children, not going to do a lemming run off a cliff ( a myth, by the way) when our population gets too high, other animals have to co-exist with us. A lion who preys on cattle in Kenya will be hunted down and killed. A bear who kills a camper in a US park will be hunted down and killed. Rats which infest granaries will be exterminated. Insects which feed on our rice will be poisoned. This is a fact of life on earth, and all the ideological crying and breast beating ain't going to change that.

Lions kill leopards and cheetahs to ensure less competition for food. Males also kill the cubs of other males. Chimpanzees hunt down other monkeys and kill other chimps. Female black widow spiders kill males after mating. "Blame?" "Wrong?" Not at all. This is nature. And humans are part of nature, too.

The cooperation between humans and dogs has benefited both creatures. Humans and horse, too. But some say, "Oh, they are domesticated!" But were they any more domesticated when the first dogs begged for scraps outside of Cro-magnon's fires than elephants are today?

Show me a reasonable solution to the issue of care and welfare to all the elephants living in Thailand and I will listen. But don't give me any clap about elephants being special because they are big, and don't come down from your foreign ivory tower to pass judgement on Thai mahouts and their elephants giving rides so as to survive.

And for those who insist on anthropomorphizing elephants and knowing their druthers, I would much rather be an elephant giving tourist rides than being a pig in packed in the back of a pickup going to slaughter.

Edited February 24, 2011 by Maestro
Reduced quoted text. No need to quote the entire text of multiple posts.

[Macmundi]

They need seatbelts on these animals. If you stay seated, you should be safe. Unless the elephant rocks you over like a rodeo rider...

RIP poor swiss lady.

[61guitarman61]

So you would rather die of starvation than work? ...

No, illogical would be assuming elephants see carrying people around on their backs as a career. Is there a local teamster's chapter for elephants? You used animals being raised for food as an example. Although life is not idyllic, the majority of farmers are not beating the heads of their livestock on a daily basis. They are well fed. They are not free but not very far from what their everyday life would be like - eat, wallow, sleep. The elephant lives as long as humans, give or take a little. They cover vast areas in their lifetimes in well organized and very social groups - many times having mates and friendships lasting their lifetimes. I knew I was opening a much broader subject when I used the fly. I am not of the opinion that every lifeform, including flies, are sacred. Sometimes it is really obvious however. With horses, for instance, there can be a true friendship between the rider and the horse. The horse is not forced to carry that person. Are there abuses? Yes. Are they as prevalent as with elephants? No. With elephants it is the norm to use the wonderful tool known as the hook. Like I said, obvious.

Edited February 24, 2011 by Maestro
Reduced quoted text. No need to quote the entire text of multiple posts.

[sunnyrolfe]

Back in 1997 christmas day in Colombo (Sri Lanka) I went to the zoo with a friend. An elephant went mad and attacked a handler killing him in front of us. There too all I saw from the other handlers was lots of blowing whistlers and hitting,hurling stuff etc. Last things you'd think would have a calming effect on an enraged elephant. Then again even if they used sleeping darts I suppose the elephant would end up injuring the riders by rolling on them. As regards the absence of senior management at the hospital, You may depend they will be having an emergency meeting to discuss how they can avoid responsibility. More than likely a junior mahout will be told to disappear then all blame will be put on him. And before any Thailand is heaven and if you don't like things here then go home types jump down my throat, just take a look at just about every time a falang is killed in a tour group related accident in Thailand. Even Thai friends know this and say " Nobody cares before it's  falang and not Thai dead". Well it is sad for the victims but I will add that what with bungy jump bungles, Jeep, minibus and camping deaths to name a few there is no shortage of information on the internet about tourist  safety issues in Thailand and even what to expect if it all goes wrong{Namely no support}. <br>

[61guitarman61]

No one, that I can see, is "blaming" the animals...

Your logic would likely allow for slavery of your own species then, would it not? Using others for your benefit? If you are dominant enough to subdue another and make them do your bidding? And giving rides sounds so benign. Look back a few pages at the video of how these subordinates are treated, then come back with your retort. Of course the slaves were whipped to bring them into line too, weren't they? I see little difference. Abuse is abuse.