‘Stressed’ elephant kills Spanish tourist in Thailand

A “frightened” elephant killed a Spanish woman while she was bathing the animal at an elephant sanctuary in Thailand, local police said.

Blanca Ojanguren García, 22, was washing an elephant at the Koh Yao Elephant Care Center last Friday when she was fatally stabbed by the animal.

Experts told the Spanish newspaper Clarín that the elephant would have been stressed by visiting tourists outside its natural habitat.

García, who studied law and international affairs at the University of Navarra in Spain, was living in Taiwan as part of a student exchange program.

He was in Thailand with his girlfriend, who witnessed the attack.

Spain’s Foreign Minister, Jose Manuel Albares, said the Spanish embassy in Bangkok is helping García’s family.

BBC News has reached the elephant sanctuary for comment.

Bathing elephants is a popular activity among tourists in Thailand, which has more than 4,000 wild animals and a similar number in captivity, according to the National Parks Department of Conservation.

The Koh Yao Center offers “elephant care” that allows visitors to make food and feed the animals, as well as bathe and walk them. These packages cost between 1,900 baht ($55; £44) and 2,900 baht.

Campaigners have previously criticized the practice of bathing elephants, saying it interferes with natural grooming practices and exposes the animals to unnecessary stress and injury.

World Animal Protection, an international humanitarian organization, has been lobbying countries including Thailand for years to stop breeding elephants in captivity.

More than six in ten elephants used in tourism in Asia are becoming “insufficient”, a charity says.

“These intelligent and social animals, capable of complex emotions and complex emotions, endure great suffering in captivity, because their natural state cannot be changed by any means,” the charity said.