Phuket Elephant stomps mahout to death

[LivinginKata]

was drunk and annoyed the elephant,...................

If there's one thing you shouldn't do when your drunk .... it's annoy an elephant

I doubt there is any good time to annoy a bull elephant.

[stevenl]

Ripped away from your mother when still a baby who was probably killed in front of you first, tortured to ensure servility, beaten with a spiked hammer every day, chained up when wanting sex. I think I might be a bit pissed off after 22 years of that. Note these mahouts are not like the traditional mahouts who were with their elephants for life, just young untrained kids brought down to handle them with probably little or no understanding of elephant behaviour but relying totally on their hammers.

Elephant numbers in Myanmar are being decimated by killing whole families to catch babies to smuggle into Thailand for the tourist trade. The real shame of this is the western tourists who fuel the demand.

Yes, some western tourists, but the main users of the elephant rides are the Russian, Chinese and Korean tourists, not the westerners.

What a facile comment...even if your assertion is correct, it doesn't matter what nationality the tourists are, the elephants are still being exploited.

Agree, it doesn't matter where the tourists are from. But I think if somebody states it is 'a', when in reality it is 'b', that that should be corrected.

[wilcopops]

Western tourism is the foundation of the Thai tourist industry. Frankly we/they should know better. The lack of awareness of tourists from other parts of the world is well known....in my opinion it is up to the West to lead the criticisms of animal exploitation as we are the best informed.

Trying to pass the blame on others is a waste of time...it is the exploitation that needs to be curbed.

Perhaps they should have said..."it's a shame that Western tourism initiated and still fuels this demand"?

Edited November 20, 2014 by wilcopops

[bangon04]

Ripped away from your mother when still a baby who was probably killed in front of you first, tortured to ensure servility, beaten with a spiked hammer every day, chained up when wanting sex. I think I might be a bit pissed off after 22 years of that. Note these mahouts are not like the traditional mahouts who were with their elephants for life, just young untrained kids brought down to handle them with probably little or no understanding of elephant behaviour but relying totally on their hammers.

Elephant numbers in Myanmar are being decimated by killing whole families to catch babies to smuggle into Thailand for the tourist trade. The real shame of this is the western tourists who fuel the demand.

well at least this one elephant decided enough was enough and decided to put his foot down....

[CFC]

I was drinking a coffee in a restaurant halfway up to Big Buddha last weekend and was watching a large Elephant eating from a distance. the Elephant was minding its own business and just eating. All of a sudden one of the staff hit the Elephant 4 or 5 times over its head with a baseball bat, they were full blown hits. If you are the Elehant and this is happening to you regularly , you are going to get your revenge when the opportunity presents itself. If the tourists stopped paying for the rides and the photos the business would be over, but alot of these stupid tourists dont understand this or see the cruelty these animals suffer.

[Johnny S]

When are Mr. Militaryman gonna stop these elephantrides for tourists - he has already put a stop to the rides in Sukhumvit happy end parlors

[jpeg]

I was drinking a coffee in a restaurant halfway up to Big Buddha last weekend and was watching a large Elephant eating from a distance. the Elephant was minding its own business and just eating. All of a sudden one of the staff hit the Elephant 4 or 5 times over its head with a baseball bat, they were full blown hits. If you are the Elehant and this is happening to you regularly , you are going to get your revenge when the opportunity presents itself. If the tourists stopped paying for the rides and the photos the business would be over, but alot of these stupid tourists dont understand this or see the cruelty these animals suffer.

The one and only time I visited the BB I saw a chained large bull elephant swaying to and fro in obvious distress at the foot of the hill.

The majority of tourists are on their holiday and think 'Well, if it seems to be okay here, who are we to argue?'.

The blame/onus lies on the Thais to amend their Cruelty To Animal laws. End of. BARBARIANS