Another Elephant Kills a Tourist in Thailand

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Environmentalists have been campaigning for a long time about the poor treatment of elephants in Thailand. Leaked videos show the brutality the young elephants face when they are being trained to perform at shows for tourists. Other elephants are forced to walk up and down hot and hard pavements all day carrying tourists. Not surprisingly, these former wild animals sometimes play up and attack the tourists. Originally I wanted to say that these incidents are rare and that tourists shouldn’t be worried. But, after another tourist was brutally killed at the weekend and her husband was badly injured by the same elephant, I feel it is time for foreign embassies to warn their citizens of the dangers and consequences of visiting elephant parks in Thailand. Both for the tourists and the elephants themselves.

A quick Google for “Elephant kills tourist Thailand” will give you many results. Here are just a few:

And there’s more than that. Some don’t even get into the papers as they try to hush it up. So, is it time to call an end to elephant tourism in Thailand or is it enough if foreign embassies updater their travel warnings for Thailand?

11 thoughts on “Another Elephant Kills a Tourist in Thailand

  • February 3, 2016 at 4:56 am
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    Why are people upset by elephant “annoyance”? They have thoughts and a social society. For crying out loud leave them to their lives. What the F makes us the boss of all? LEAVE THE ELEPHANTS ALONE!

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  • September 30, 2014 at 11:00 pm
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    Stop using them as slaves and try thinking what kind of pain or if that elephant ha been feed or watered usually they aren’t because they use food as leverage if u wanna ride take the risk I say job well done but next time smash your owner to death and scare the hell out of tourist so they never want to ride u or make u beg for food again! Humans suck how about u let us strap u down and ride your back all day while your poked and starved and beaten and neve seek any type of dr for your check ups ECt release all elephants go sanctuaries because we will win an either u release willingly or when we capture your abuse u will endure worse if such thing is possible

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  • May 28, 2013 at 9:15 am
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    The BKK post article says the lady and her husband went to feed the elephant after work hours when no handlers were around. That was not a smart thing to do. It is not all the elephant’s fault

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  • May 28, 2013 at 9:15 am
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    We went to the elephant sanctuary in chiang Mai where this lady Lek has been buying elephants that have been working in the tourism and logging trade. It’s quite heartbreaking to hear the stories tourists are not necessarily aware of. To me it seems like one of those necessary evils of this world, not that it justifies what happens. From what I know, Thailand does not have any designated areas, like let’s say Krueger national park, where full time staff are paid to patrol and look after wildlife. Maybe it is time for that?

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  • May 28, 2013 at 9:14 am
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    The sad thing is, the usual judgements are being made. Go & visit this Elephant Kraal in Ayutthaya & see the good work they are doing. I have. Several times. I can say that at this place no elephant does anything they don’t want to. There are exceptions to the rule & this place is one of them. This is a sad incident, but is not the fault of the elephant if they approached without the mahout being present. They were in a restricted area, not the elephant.

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  • May 28, 2013 at 6:34 am
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    And who’s supposed to pull the plug on this touristic, money generating activity? The same person that with the same signature will abolish jet skies and their related scams in Thailand? Or is this just the tip of the iceberg?

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  • May 27, 2013 at 9:55 pm
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    Sadly this sort of repeated new story and heart felt plea gets resigned to the over flowing waste paper bin of old news very quickly , joe public have short memories and soon forget the blood stained seats once occupied by past eager tourists wanting to watch such majestic and beautiful animals be put through a sad humiliating spectacle all in the name of so called entertainment. Not only are these wonderful animals from a young age subjected to endless physical torture by their so called mahouts , then once brutally beaten into submission have to spend the rest of their existence chained up waiting to be burdened by hordes of paying tourists clambering on their backs , or with the help of their heartless owner and a sharp implement cajoled into performing distasteful and degrading acts. Thailand has many shameful stains on its character, and the above is just one of them .

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  • May 27, 2013 at 9:53 pm
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    And they made orang utans smuggled from Borneo to do boxing once upon a time in Thailand!! Thailand needs to do some thing on animal abuse!!!!

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  • May 27, 2013 at 9:51 pm
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    Yes, animal should not be commercialised that way including the panda!!!

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