Home  Web Resources Free Advertising

 Home > News > International News > Full Story

Change Your Life!

Thai elephant dies after voracious eating

News
Sports
Chat
Travel
Dhaka Today
Yellow Pages
Higher Education
Ask a Doctor
Weather
Currency Rate
Horoscope
E-Cards
B2K Poll
Comment on the Site
B2K Club

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.

 


Copyright © Bangla2000. All Rights Reserved.
About Us  |  Legal Notices  |  Contact for Advertisement