Bathed with animal

Elephant kills Spanish tourist (22) in Thailand

(Bild: stock.adobe.com/photos4nature)

The elephant camp on the Thai island of Koh Yao Yai was supposed to be a vacation highlight for the Spanish woman Blanca Garcia - but the 22-year-old paid for her experience at the popular tourist attraction with her life. She was attacked by an animal while bathing with the pachyderms and died.

The animal attacked the 22-year-old student in front of her partner on Friday when the couple was washing and scrubbing the elephants in a body of water together with other tourists, it was reported. Bathing with the animals in rivers or ponds is one of the attractions at such camps.

A picture of the Spanish woman who was killed:

Great stress for the animals
The newspaper "El Mundo" wrote, citing the owner, that the "Koh Yao Elephant Care Center" had been temporarily closed following the tragic incident. The website was also out of service.

This is where the Koh Yao Elephant Care Center advertises bathing with the pachyderms: 

The elephant was probably under a lot of stress due to the constant interactions with tourists, the news site "The Thaiger" quoted animal rights activists as saying. Many of the elephants live isolated and far from their natural habitat - and are also constantly forced to perform unnatural acts.

Encounters with elephants are advertised as animal-friendly
Thousands of domesticated elephants in Thailand live together with their mahouts (elephant handlers). In recent years, the much-criticized exploitation of the animals for tourist riding tours has greatly diminished. Since then, numerous elephant camps, most of which are advertised as sanctuaries for rescued animals, offer up-close, supposedly animal-friendly encounters with Thailand's national animal.