|
|
Change Your Life! |
Thai elephant dies after voracious eating |
|
News |
|
|
June 27, 2000
BANGKOK
(AP) - A starving Thai elephant died after eating
50 kilograms (110 pounds) of uncooked rice then drinking 250 liters (65
gallons) of water, a veterinarian said Monday.
Pang
Boonmee, a 27 year old cow elephant, died Sunday from respiratory
failure due to gas that formed as the rice swelled in her stomach, said
Alongkron Mahannop, chief veterinarian at Bangkok public zoo.
The rice has been stored on a truck that was transporting the elephant to Bangkok from northeastern Thailand. Her handler had planned to make money by begging with the beast in the city.
The
Bangkok authorities are gradually rounding up the around 40 elephants
working the city's streets and sending them back to the northeastern
province of Surin, 340 kilometers (211 miles), home to most of Thailand's working elephants.
But
handlers often struggle to find enough to feed them in the country
and sneak them back into the city. Elephants need to eat about 200
kilograms (440 pounds) of leaves, fruit and vegetables a day, Alongkorn said.
Three elephants expelled from the capital during the crackdown over the past three months have died from malnutrition, he said.
Numbers of Thai domesticated elephants have dwindled to around 2,500 from 4,000 a decade ago. Many face mistreatment from their keepers and animal rights protection law in Thailand is weak.
Pang
Boonmee showed other signs of mistreatment. She had been fed with
methamphetamine stimulant for a long time when the beast worked in the
logging industry in northern Thailand, Alongkorn said.
|