An overworked elephant, reportedly annoyed, decided to rip its owner in half in the Thai province of Phang Nga.
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Police received a call around 11:30 a.m. Wednesday regarding the death of the elephant owner in the Tha Yu district. According to Next Shark, the 20-year-old male elephant, Pom Pam, had torn 32-year-old Supachai Wongfaed in half with his tusks. The village chief, investigators, and rescue workers went to the scene and found Pom Pam standing over Wongfaed’s body in the middle of a rubber plantation.
Officials from the Phang Nga Provincial Livestock sedated the animal so rescue workers could retrieve Wongfead’s body. Investigators said he is the son of Thawon Wongfaed, Khok Chareon subdistrict’s former mayor. In their report, Takua Thung Police said Pom Pam was forced to carry wood in the rubber plantation and assumed the hot weather made the elephant “go crazy,” leading to the attack. The country’s government originally banned using elephants to carry wood in 1989, although it still occurs in some parts of the country.
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There are over 30 laws that protect elephants in Thailand, but they still endure abuse in various parts of the country. The outlet said that the recorded temperature of Phang Nga province could go up to 89.6 degrees Fahrenheit in August. Save The Elephants founder Duncan McNair also released a statement regarding the incident.
“They suffer deeply, psychologically as well as physically, when broken and forced into constant severe toil in logging and related activities. Save The Asian Elephants has abundant evidence of approaching 2,000 human deaths and catastrophic injuries caused by captive elephants brutalized in unnatural forced activities including tourism.”
Another elephant made headlines in June after it trampled a woman to death and then crashed her funeral.
An incident in India involving an elephant went viral after it reportedly trampled a 70-year-old woman, identified as Maya Murmu, to death, then crashed her funeral and trampled her corpse. Locals said the woman was involved in a poaching scheme that killed the elephant’s family, and the animal acted for revenge. News of the incident sparked a thread on Twitter where elephants were annoyed by humans and had enough of their shenanigans.