The body of Supachai Wongfaed, 32, was found in a pool of blood after police responded to a rubber plantation in Phang Nga province, Thai news agency Thaiger reported. Police said a 20-year-old male elephant named Pom Pam stabbed the man with its tusks multiple times, ripping his body in half. A preliminary investigation found that Supachai brought the elephant to carry wood to the plantation that morning, the agency said, citing police. Police said the hot weather may have caused the animal to go “crazy” and attack the man. Ranch officers had to stun the elephant with an arrow from more than 1,600 feet away so Supachai’s body could be recovered, according to the report. An elephant reportedly killed its handler Supachai Wongfaed in southern Thailand after he was forced to carry logs in the heat.Shutterstock Another incident occurred last month in Nakhon Sri Thammarat province. Police suspect that the elephant, in that case, was under pressure from work, stabbed its handler to death and stood over his corpse for hours, the report said. Duncan McNair, CEO of the charity Save The Asian Elephants, told Newsweek that Asian elephants suffer psychologically and physically when they are broken and forced to work in extreme activities such as logging. “[It] is yet another stark reminder that Asian elephants are and always will be wild animals that can attack and kill when abused or overly stressed by humans,” McNair said. Although the practice of using Asian elephants to transport logs was banned in Thailand in 1989, it still occurs in some parts of the country, according to the agency.
