Elephant breaks Bali tourist’s arm in horror bite attack

A tourist suffered injuries after posing for a photo at the Mason Elephant Park, Bali. Photo / Waldemar, Unsplash

A woman is recovering from injuries received from being bitten by an Sumatran elephant on a trip to Bali.

American tourists Beth and Les Bogar from New Hampshire had been enjoying their tropical break to Bali, when they thought they would get a photo keepsake of the holiday. It was memorable for all the wrong reasons.

Beth Bogar took the opportunity to pose with one of the animals at the Mason Elephant Park and Lodge last week, when the incident happened. With her back to the animal she told the CNN network of the horrific sensation as it bit down on her arm.

“It was like a suction, pushed into his mouth,” Bogar said. From a moment of surprise it soon turned to horror, as the tourist was powerless to stop her arm being broken.

“I could hear cracking,” she recalled.

The shocking incident was captured on video.

She had been watching the elephant’s trainer who held the camera, instructing her on how to pose. Lifting her arm up she was grabbed from behind.

“I just feel as though he was guiding me, and he let my arm get too close to the animal’s mouth and I didn’t know how close I was,” she said.

She was rushed to hospital which was over an hour away, where surgery was needed to reconstruct her forearm.

“There are plates, there are screws, and everything is put back together. But it’s going to be a long road,” she told WMUR.

The resort reportedly paid $7650 to cover the cost of the operation.

The Mason Elephant Park and Lodge offers tourists the opportunity to stay on site among the rare Sumatran animals and was named Bali’s “Most Unique Hotel” by the World Luxury Hotel Awards.

On site accommodation is built with platforms at howdah-height, to allow tourists to be picked up by elephant from their rooms.

Founder of the park Nigel Mason told the Herald that what happened to the guests was a very unfortunate incident.

“In our many years since the founding of our park in 1997 when we rescued the first critically-endangered Sumatran elephants from the deforestation death camps in Sumatra, we’ve never once had an incident like this occur,” he said.

Despite reporting, Mason said their elephants do not bite. Instead Mrs Bogar’s arm was “accidentally broken when the elephant’s trunk came down on it suddenly.”

The operator said that the tourists had signed a waiver but that they contributed to the costs of medical care.

“I cannot stress enough that our team did all that it could to help comfort and compensate Mrs. Bogar and give her all the sympathy and help that we could for the very unfortunate freak accident which occurred.”

The park charges admission to visitors for feeding and “elephant encounters”. It also charges for visitors to ride the animals.

Animal welfare body PETA asks tourists not to support elephant rides and since 2014 many tour operators such as Intrepid Travel and G-Adventures have stopped promoting operators which offer the activity.

The resort’s website says the animals are “well cared for in a healthy and stimulating environment that caters to all their daily needs.” The resort says it holds certification from the Asian Captive Elephant Standards body in Thailand.

The park defends their offering of elephant riding, saying they advocate for the practice as part of preserving species such as the endangered Sumatran elephant.