Spanish tourist killed by elephant at Thai sanctuary
A tragic incident occurred at a sanctuary in southern Thailand when 22-year-old Spanish tourist, Blanca Ojanguren Garcia, was gored to death by an elephant while bathing the animal.
The fatal encounter took place at the Koh Yao Elephant Care center on Koh Yao Yai island, where Garcia and her boyfriend were participating in the popular activity of bathing elephants, a common tourist experience in Thailand.
According to local police, the elephant seemed to “panic” during the bath, causing it to pierce Garcia with its tusk. The incident was reported by the center’s owner, and an investigation is now underway, as confirmed by Charan Bangprasert, the Koh Yao district police chief.
Elephants, which hold cultural and national significance in Thailand, have suffered significant declines in their wild population.
Experts estimate there are only 3,000-4,000 wild elephants left in the country, a sharp decrease from more than 100,000 at the start of the 20th century.
While the number of wild elephants has dwindled, captive elephant numbers have risen dramatically, with approximately 2,800 elephants now held in tourism venues, a 134% increase between 2010 and 2020.
The international non-profit World Animal Protection has repeatedly raised concerns over the exploitation of elephants in the tourism industry.
They have urged an end to captive breeding and warned that elephants’ intelligence and complex emotional capacity make them unsuitable for captivity, especially when interacting with humans.
