Elephant tramples UK tourist to death
Print Edition
A British tourist has been trampled to death by an elephant on the Thai tourist island of Koh Samui, police said yesterday, the latest deadly attack by animals used to entertain holidaymakers.
The man, identified by police as Gareth Crowe, 36, was riding on the animal鈥檚 back with his daughter on Monday afternoon when it suddenly threw them off, police said.
鈥淲e suspect that the hot weather made the elephant angry and that he was not accustomed to his mahout,鈥 said Paiboon Omark, Samui district chief.
A mahout is a person who trains, controls and rides an elephant, usually after years of cultivating a close bond with the animal.
Paiboon said Crowe had a prosthetic leg and was unable to run away from the marauding pachyderm.
His daughter and the mahout, a Myanmar national, were both injured but escaped, he added.
The elephant, named 鈥淕olf,鈥 was tranquillised and brought under control, he said.
Thailand has an estimated 4,000 domesticated elephants, many working in the tourism trade, alongside some 2,500 wild elephants.
In August, an elephant killed his mahout with three terrified Chinese tourists still on his back. The tourists survived the ordeal.
Thailand鈥檚 use of animals for tourism is under increased scrutiny following a string of scandals and investigations by rights groups.
The government is currently locked in a battle with a controversial 鈥淭iger Temple鈥 that refuses to hand over hundreds of big cats despite holding them illegally.
Conservationists are meeting with Thai government officials today to lobby for better animal welfare standards across the tourism trade.
鈥淚n my view, male elephants should not be in the tourism industry, they鈥檙e simply too unpredictable,鈥 said Edwin Wiek, from Wildlife Friends of Thailand, one of the groups attending the meeting.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 娌狪CP璇侊細娌狪CP澶05050403鍙-1
- |
- 浜掕仈缃戞柊闂讳俊鎭湇鍔¤鍙瘉锛31120180004
- |
- 缃戠粶瑙嗗惉璁稿彲璇侊細0909346
- |
- 骞挎挱鐢佃鑺傜洰鍒朵綔璁稿彲璇侊細娌瓧绗354鍙
- |
- 澧炲肩數淇′笟鍔＄粡钀ヨ鍙瘉锛氭勃B2-20120012
Copyright 漏 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
