MEAWW.COM / NEWS / HUMAN INTEREST

Overworked elephant RIPS OWNER IN HALF after extreme heat drove him 'crazy'

The elephant named Pom Pam is said to have stabbed his owner, Supachai Wongfaed, 32, to death with its tusks and pulled him apart

PHANG NGA, THAILAND: An overworked elephant in Thailand reportedly ripped his owner in half after the excessive workload and intolerable hot weather drove him crazy, claims local police.

The elephant named Pom Pam is said to have stabbed his owner, Supachai Wongfaed, 32, to death with its tusks and then pulled him apart, said the report. The cops from Takua Thung Police Station got notified about the incident at around 11.30 am on Wednesday, August 18.

ALSO READ

Five wild elephants die while trying to save calf that was swept into waterfall, were heard 'crying' for help

Five more elephants found dead at Thai waterfall days after 5 others fell to their deaths trying to save a baby elephant that drowned

Upon their arrival at a rubber plantation in the Tha Yu subdistrict, the officers and the chief of the village found Wongfaed’s body in a pool of blood with Pom Pam standing over it. The 20-year-old Pom Pam had been lifting rubberwood for Wongfaed for a long time now; but on the day of the incident, the scorching temperatures which have reached as high as 89 degrees Fahrenheit in recent days drove him crazy and made him attack his owner.

Rescuers reportedly used a dart gun to calm down Pom Pam and retrieve the body of the victim, which they later handed over to his family for the funeral. The dead owner of the animal is identified as the son of former Khok Charoen subdistrict mayor Thawon Wongfaed.

"[It] is yet another stark reminder that Asian elephants are and always remain wild animals that can attack and kill when they are abused or overly stressed by humans,” Duncan McNair, the CEO of the charity Save The Asian Elephants, told Newsweek. “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,” McNair added.

Because of their strength and large size, Asian elephants are sometimes used to carrying heavy wooden logs and get labeled as "logging elephants." Although the Thai government banned the practice back in 1989, it still occurs in some areas around the country.

While Thailand has almost 30 laws placed to protect elephants, they still reportedly suffer abuse at the hands of humans. Elephants are usually seen as calm and helpful animals, but when they get stressed or annoyed, they tend to attack humans, even their owners. One elephant made headlines in June 2022 for killing a 70-year-old woman and then crashing her funeral to trample on her corpse.