shygye Posted February 25, 2011 Report Share Posted February 25, 2011 Link PHUKET: A Swiss woman is dead and three other foreign tourists are in hospital in Phuket after an elephant went berserk during a trekking tour in Phang Nga yesterday. Speaking from his wife’s bedside at Bangkok Hospital Phuket this afternoon, Australian tourist Sean Gothe said he and his wife Helen were among eight couples on a one-day tour to Khao Sok National Park. In the afternoon, the Gothes climbed aboard their elephant, a 31-year-old female, and the other couples did likewise. At about the half-way point in the ride, three or four of the animals met in a clearing and the mahouts (elephant drivers) exchanged cameras to take photos. At this point, one of the elephants went berserk and attacked the elephant the Gothes were riding on, trying to rip off its trunk. ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheCorinthian Posted February 25, 2011 Report Share Posted February 25, 2011 IMO, you got to be an idiot to even go near those things. Domesticated my ass.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Central Scrutinizer Posted February 25, 2011 Report Share Posted February 25, 2011 I feed a 40 yro female elephant some sugar cane a few times a week. She and her mahout and his wife come by the restaurant daily/nightly. Mainly because she is owned outright by this mahout and not one of the 'rental' elephants some of the rich Chi-thais bought to take advantage of, so I try to help the mahout and his wife out, as they are decent sorts. Some of the 'rental' elephants are rented by young idiots with no connection to the animal, and they treat them appallingly, charge outrageous prices for the meager sugar cane they provide (double the local Surin mahout's price). Saw one of these lao khao louts draw blood from a young elephant they were handling with the hook they use. Hit the elephant right in the forehead with the pointed hook end and made the poor thing bleed copiously. It pissed me off so much I told the fuckers to leave and never come back to us. The big problem with many of the 'tourist' area elephants is they are not owned and raised by the handlers/mahouts, and are harder to control by these inexperienced men as a result. Beware any elephant that looks like it is 'crying'. Dark patches of moisture under the eyes of the males mean they are in heat/must and they can be extremely unpredictable and dangerous during this time. Stay away if you see this sign of their being in heat. I love these grand majestic animals and wish the government would get their act together and reign in the practice of letting them be ridden around in the traffic on the hot tarmac and basically begging in this manner. They should be in wildlife preserves and cared for by the government by trained professional wildlife management personnel. Supposedly the Thai government bought a huge plot of land to make into an elephant preserve outside of Surin. Hopefully they get on with making this a reality soon. Been a couple years since I heard of the purchase of the land and the plan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozpharlap Posted February 25, 2011 Report Share Posted February 25, 2011 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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