Elephant rips handler in half after ‘going crazy’ in heat as it was made to haul wood in Thailand

An elephant has ripped its handler in half after it was forced to haul wood from a plantation during a heatwave in Thailand.

The male elephant, named Pom Pam, stabbed Supachai Wongfaed, 33, with its tusks several times and ripped his body in half after ‘going crazy’ in the heat, police said. 

The 20-year-old elephant had been hauling rubberwood from a plantation in the hot weather, where temperatures reached 89 degrees Fahrenheit (31C), in southern Thailand’s Phang Nga province last week when it turned on its handler. 

Police officers and rescue workers were called to the scene where they found Wongfaed’s body ripped in two in a pool of blood, reports Thaigar.

Livestock officers then shot Pom Pam with a sedative dart from a range of around 550 yards so that rescue workers could retrieve the handler’s body.

The livestock offers later transported the elephant to their facility for rehabilitation. 

Asian elephants are sometimes used to carry logs and woods in forested areas of Thailand, despite a 30-year-old law banning the practice. 

Takua Thung police Lieutenant Colonel Sorasak Chandee said: ‘We were called to the scene at a rubber plantation where we found the dead body of a mahout.

‘The elephant owner was attacked and killed by his animal. The elephant was aggressive when we found it. We suspect her was irritable and attacked his caretaker.’

Wonfaed’s father was Thawon Wongfaed, the former mayor of the Khok Charoen subdistrict in central Thailand. His body has been taken to relatives for his funeral.

‘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,’ he added.

McNair said his charity believes at least 2,000 people have been killed or injured by captive elephants ‘brutalised in unnatural forced activities’.

Last month, another handler was killed by his elephant at a rubberwood plantation in Chawang district, southern Thailand.

Chaichana Matchimwong was found dead by police with multiple tusk wounds, reports the Bangkok Post.

Elephant Phlai Ekasit (pictured) killed his 54-year-old owner at a Thai zoo in 2017 by crushing him to death with his trunk

In 2017, a famous Thai elephant who starred in films and adverts crushed his handler to death at a zoo in Thailand. 

Somsak Riangngern, 54, was killed at Chiang Mai Zoo by a 32-year-old male elephant named Phlai Ekasit.

Mr Riangngern had fed Phlai and unchained him so he could bathe and drink when the attack happened. As Mr Riangngern was walking away from the elephant when the animal struck him with its trunk and tusks before grabbing him with its trunk.

Ekasit is well known in Thailand having starred in five films including the popular Ong Bak series starring martial arts expert Tony Jaa. 

Ekasit had reportedly been performing in shows for tourists, though Wuthichai denied this, saying the zoo only allows tourists to feed the animals.

Thailand is notorious for an elephant tourism trade that sees the animals performing in circuses, giving rides, or hired out for other forms of entertainment.