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The following is a partial listing of rampages by captive elephants in Thailand since 1990.
November 21, 2000: Three politicians were thrown 8 feet when an elephant they were riding panicked upon seeing traffic and bolted through the streets. One man suffered a broken arm, another sustained head, arm, and leg injuries, and the third man was badly bruised.
July 13, 2000: An elephant used for giving rides to tourists gored a man to death after the man teased him by pretending to offer food.
April 24, 2000: An elephant used in a tourist park went berserk during a show and attacked three tourists from Britain, killing one and seriously injuring the other two.
February 14, 2000: A bull elephant tossed his handler off his back and went berserk in the heart of Bangkok, stampeding through a major shopping district before being tranquilized. The elephant was hungry and exhausted from walking along the busy streets begging for money for his handler, a common practice in Thailand.
February 7, 2000: A bull elephant used as a working animal killed one man and crushed the arm of another. The man’s arm was so badly injured that it had to be amputated.
July 11, 1999: An elephant used for carrying tourists at a popular resort gouged his 13-year-old keeper to death. The boy was taking the 25-year-old elephant, Boonlieng, for his usual bath when the animal suddenly became nervous and killed him.
November 3, 1997: An elephant killed eight people and injured his trainer.
March 17, 1997: A spooked elephant killed an Australian man at a tourist show in northern Thailand.
January 1997: An elephant who had been chained to a tree for 20 years was gunned down after going berserk and breaking free.
February 8, 1996: An elephant was shot and killed after he killed his owner and damaged several houses. The elephant had broken free just the night before and caused damage in the village.
March 16, 1995: An elephant in a circus trampled two men to death before being shot and killed by police. The elephant was killed when chloroform bullets failed to stop him from charging the crowd.
April 1991: An elephant was frightened by a camera flash and trampled a person to death.
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