Fed-up elephant kills teaser

PATTAYA (AFP): An elephant hired to give tourists rides gored and killed his mahout’s brother, who had teased the animal for years, police said today. “They were not getting along very well and the elephant was very unhappy whenever the victim went near him,” said Pol Maj Thanakrit Larpinpisant of the Pattaya police. It was the second fatal attack by an elephant in Thailand this year. A British woman was killed in April by an elephant that was also provoked, in that case by tourists who snatched away its bananas. Thankrit said the latest victim, 52-year-old Oun Insamran, had enraged the 16-year-old bull elephant, Yogi, by bringing him pineapple leaves and then yanking them away to give to his own elephant, a female. Yogi’s mahout, Oun’s brother Dam, saw the attack and tried to hold the beast back by shackling his legs and using a knife to stab him through his thick hide. But the elephant ignored him and gored Oun with his tusks, police said. Oun died on the way to hospital. Yogi was immediately sent back to his home in Surin. The Suan Chang resort in Pattaya also sent away 10 other bull elephants that had been used to give rides to tourists.