Tourist Killed While Bathing Elephant at Thailand Sanctuary
A Spanish tourist is dead following an incident involving an elephant at an animal sanctuary in Thailand.
According to translated reports from Spanish newspapers El Mundo and El Pais, via the Daily Mail, 22-year-old student Blanca Ojanguren García had been bathing the elephant at Koh Yao Elephant Care on Friday, Jan. 3, when the animal struck her with its trunk. Previous reports claimed that she had been gored, but were later clarified by the Spanish news agency EFE.
García was rushed to a local hospital but died from her injuries. A total of 18 people, including her boyfriend, were present during the attack but no one else was injured. García had been studying law and international relations at the University of Navarra, but was living in Taiwan at the time of the incident while studying abroad for six months at Tamkang University.
People reports that the owner of Koh Yao Elephant Care claimed that there are three elephants on site, including elephant involved in the incident; a 50-year-old female. The center receives about 10 to 30 visitors daily.
The Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affair said that the consulate in Bangkok had been in contact with Garcia's family. In the meantime, her body was transferred to a hospital on the island of Phuket, off the west coast of mainland Thailand, as they prepared to return her remains to her home country.
According to World Animal Protection's website, wild elephants in Thailand are outnumbered by those kept in captivity, with nearly 2,800 elephants living in tourism venues across the country. Unfortunately, those captive elephants are generally not treated well, as an assessment of 3,837 elephants in 357 venues across Asia found that 63 percent were "living in severely inadequate conditions."
The organization also states that elephants will generally not move close enough to humans to be naturally touched. In the event a tourist is permitted to touch an elephant, it's likely that the animal has been subjected to cruel training methods.