Spanish tourist killed while bathing elephant in Thailand
Blanca Ojanguren Garcia, 22, was killed by an elephant last Friday during a visit to the Koh Yao Elephant Care Centre in Thailand.
Ms Garcia, a law and international relations student at a Spanish university in Navarra, living in Taiwan as part of a student exchange programme, visited the Animal Care Centre in Thailand with her boyfriend.
According to the BBC, the incident occurred when Ms Garcia was bathing the animal, which was considered a common activity among tourists in Thailand.
The Koh Yao Centre offers elephant care packages and allows tourists to make food for and feed animals, shower and walk with them, costing around $55.
World Animal Protection, an international charity, and animal activists have previously criticised elephant bathing activities, noting that they disrupt their natural grooming and could expose them to stress and potential injuries.
“More than six in 10 elephants used for tourism in Asia are living in severely inadequate conditions, and these intelligent and socially intricate animals, with a capacity for complex thoughts and emotions, endure profound suffering in captivity, as their natural social structures cannot be replicated artificial,” the charity said.
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