Elephant Rips Handler In Half In Thailand After Being Forced To Carry Wood Logs In Extreme Heat

An elephant ripped its handler in half using its tusks in southern Thailand after being made to carry rubberwood in the scorching heat, according to a report.

What Happened: A 32-year-old elephant mahout was found in a pool of blood at a rubber plantation in Thailand's Phang Nga province last week after an annoyed elephant stabbed the man with its tusks multiple times, news outlet the Thaiger reported.

The initial investigation revealed that Supachai Wongfaed brought the 20-year-old male elephant named Pom Pam to haul wood at the plantation that morning. The police believe that the hot weather may have made the animal "go crazy" and attack the handler.

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The livestock officers sedated the elephant with a dart from over 1,600 feet away to recover Wongfaed's body.

In 1989, Thailand imposed a ban on the practice of using Asian elephants to carry logs; despite that, it still occurs in some parts of the country, according to the report.

Last month, a similar incident occurred in the Nakhon Sri Thammarat province, where the elephant after stabbing its handler to death, stood over his corpse for hours. In that case, too, the police suspected that the elephant was stressed from work.

According to Duncan McNair, the CEO of the charity Save The Asian Elephants, "[It] is yet another stark reminder that Asian elephants are and always remain wild animals that can attack and kill when they are abused or overly stressed by humans."

"They [Elephants] suffer deeply, psychologically as well as physically, when broken and forced into constant severe toil in logging and related activities," he told Newsweek.

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