A young male elephant was electrocuted in Thailand while being led by its owner after it accidentally fell into a road drain and broke a restaurant sign's power cable.
Two elephant handlers were walking 10-year-old Plai Nam Choke - or "Lucky" in English - around a town in Samut Prakhan province south of Bangkok, offering passers-by the chance to feed him for cash.
But Lucky stumbled into an open sewer and collided with an electric signboard outside a restaurant. Lucky had been shocked unconscious on Thepharak road in front of Wat Bang Phli Yai in Samut Prakan's Bang Phli district.
Rescuers from a local charity group arrived at the scene first and used a crane to lift the elephant from the drain. They attempted CPR on Lucky for three hours after he fell.
In an operation that was broadcast on Facebook Live, the rescuers tried to resuscitate the elephant with advice from Phattarapol Manee-on, a veterinarian of the National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department.
Its owner Phansa Yanamkham, 15, was arrested and charged with moving an elephant out of its province without permission, said Suraphan Noisa-ard, chief of the Bang Phli Livestock Development Office.
Phansa said he and his elephant, Phan Larn (Billion), came from Surin to make a living by asking passers-by to purchase food for the elephant.
Phansa said he and the elephant had stopped at the carpark of a shabu shop to sell elephant food to shop patrons. When they were leaving, the elephant stepped on a wooden lid of a manhole drain.
The lid broke, and as the elephant fell into the drain, it broke the power cable of the shop's sign, causing a short-circuit that electrocuted it.
Phansa said he shouted to the shop to pull the sign's plug and people in the neighbourhood contacted the authorities for help. Surphan said vets from Lampang would perform a post-mortem on Saturday (Sept 15) to determine the cause of death.
Lucky hailed from the northeastern province of Surin, home to a famous annual elephant fair that features a parade by performing pachyderms.
Wild elephants can still be seen in Thailand's national forests, but their numbers have dwindled to about 2,700 from a peak of over 100,000 in 1850.
A large number have been domesticated for entertainment or tourism purposes, prompting accusations of animal cruelty.
Handlers are usually banned from walking elephants through cities due to space constraints, but many risk punishments in pursuit of living.
Research has shown that elephants caught in the wild and subjected to a lifetime of captivity suffer from long-term stress and tend to have shorter lifespans.
sources: channelnewsasia.com, straitstimes.com