When animals attack - Sri Lankan Elephant Edition
From MSNBC …
Eighteen-year-old Abey is unpredictable, has a temper and let his side down badly on Thursday when he lost focus on his polo game in southern Sri Lanka and hospitalized two of his teammates.
The four-ton elephant threw off an American player as well as the Sri Lankan rider directing Abey as the island’s sixth annual elephant polo tournament got under way, rampaging off the field and crushing the Spanish team’s minibus with his head.
Hmmmm … not one for good sportsmanship then ?
Spectators rushed out of the enclosure next to the ramparts of a historic 17th Century Dutch Fort in the southern port town of Galle as Abey repeatedly butted the minibus, breaking its windows and wrecking its bodywork.
Wonder if the insurance covers acts-of-elephant ?
A vet clutched a tranquilizer dart rifle nearby as trainers tried to control him with sharp sticks and stones.
“I’m not playing again. It’s not safe,” said visiting American player Courtney Zenz after watching her teammate thrown from the back of the elephant and dangling in the air, her leg stuck in a stirrup.
Elephants are revered in Sri Lanka and used at Buddhist religious ceremonies and local festivals — the main day job for most of the polo-playing elephants chosen from among 110 domesticated animals across the island.
The rest of the Sri Lanka’s 3,500-4,000 elephants are wild, roaming in scrub jungle and wildlife parks, and officials are striving to tackle a human-elephant conflict in rural areas, where farmers shoot dead elephants to protect their crops.
I assume they mean the farmers shoot the elephants dead, not that they shoot dead elephants.
In 2006 around 150 elephants were killed and 50 humans were trampled or slammed to death as the animals strayed into villages scavenging for food
Visiting Thai elephant conservation expert Prasop Tipprasert says putting the animals to work can help educate the civilian population and pay for costly upkeep, but is not convinced polo is the answer.
and I feel I’ve got to include this quote …
“Doing any sport is always a risk. Let’s go surfing.”
