SUKHOTHAI: An elephant camp owner was stomped and gored to death by his pachyderm in Sri Satchanalai district on Saturday.
The attack occurred near Boon Lott’s Elephant Sanctuary in tambon Ban Tuek, said Pol Capt Anusorn Niamkaew, a duty officer at the Sri Satchanalai police station.
Anont Pimmuen, 38, was found lying face down with his neck and legs broken in a corn field near the sanctuary. There were severe bruises along his body. Beneath a tree not far from the body stood Boonchok, 10, a bull elephant with one left tusk.
Anont’s British wife Katherine Conner, 38, founded the elephant sanctuary in 2007. Her husband was the chief mahout at the centre, which now has 18 elephants. Anont had raised Boonchok since it was young.
Boonchok was fierce and often irritable. Only Anont could control the animal, said his wife.
Before the incident, her husband had taken the elephant to graze in the field as usual. The jumbo might have been irritable as the weather was hot. Anont was not carrying a hook with him at the time, so he had nothing to control the animal with when it attacked, Ms Conner said sadly.
