Elephant Stabbed Owner to Death After Being Forced to Work in 89-Degree Heat

After being made to work by carrying wood in Thailand on a day when the temperature reached 89 degrees, an elephant stabbed its owner to death with its tusk, ripping the victim's body in half.

Supachai Wongfaed, 32, was found ripped in half and a pool of blood on Wednesday when police turned up at the Phang Nga province rubber plantation.

According to a Thai news source, the 20-year-old elephant known as Pom Pam stabbed its owner with its tusks, causing the body to rip in half. When it attacked, the elephant was transporting rubberwood in the sweltering heat. According to the police, they think that's what made it turn on its owner.

Asian elephants are occasionally employed to transport wood and logs through dense forests. Although the practice was outlawed in Thailand in 1989, some parts of the country still use what is referred to as "logging elephants."

Temperatures have recently reached 89 degrees Fahrenheit in Thailand's Phang Nga province. The elephant may have "gone crazy" due to the temperatures, especially given that it had been hauling wood, according to the police.

When police arrived, the elephant remained positioned over Wongfaed's body. Officers from the Phang Nga Provincial Livestock Department tranquilized the elephant so they could examine the body.

Thawon Wongfaed, a former subdistrict mayor of Khok Charoen, has been identified as the owner of Pom Pam. For the funeral, Wongfaed's body was handed to his kin.

Save the Asian Elephants

That serves as yet another powerful reminder that Asian elephants are and will always be wild animals that can attack and kill when they are mistreated or put under too much stress by humans, according to Duncan McNair, CEO of the nonprofit organization Save The Asian Elephants. They endure great physical and psychological suffering as a result of being broken and subjected to logging and other hard labor continuously.

A registered charity called Save The Asian Elephants has a ton of evidence showing that captive elephants are mistreated in unnatural coercive activities like tourism, resulting in nearly 2,000 human deaths and serious injuries.

The organization Save The Asian Elephants is actively working to outlaw the promotion of foreign destinations that abuse elephants for tourism.

Read also: Mourning Elephant Mother Carries Dead Calf in Weeks-Long Ritual 

Elephants in Thailand

Elephants are regarded as both wild and domestic animals in Thailand. Elephants still endure suffering in captivity despite the nearly 30 laws that are in place to protect them.

Even though they are typically thought of as friendly animals, elephants can be dangerous to people if they feel threatened, stressed, or provoked.

About 60% of the elephants in Thailand are kept in captivity, and 60% of those elephants are employed in the tourism industry. Other elephants might be employed for labor-intensive festivals or parades.

Bullhooks, sticks with metal hooks at the ends, are used to train some domesticated elephants in Thailand. These can occasionally be used to restrain an elephant's movements by being applied to vulnerable body parts.

Human-Wildlife Conflicts in Thailand

Pom Pam's outrage was not the only instance of human-wildlife conflict that has recently happened in Thailand, Newsweek reports.

There was another incident in July where an elephant used its tusks to attack its owner in the province of Nakhon Sri Thammarat.

This elephant had to climb a hill to get its work done. Police believed that the elephant's attack on its owner was the result of stress.

Related article: Asian Elephants Experience Emotional Stress and Loneliness When Left Alone: New Study