Tag Archives: catch an elephant by its tail

Man BITES Snake TWICE — In India!

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by Anura Guruge
on July 8, 2024

Click to ENLARGE. From the U.K. ‘Daily Mail’.

Please, check it out. I don’t make this stuff up. Though the U.K. ‘Daily Mail’ is a tabloid, in my vast experience with them spanning nearly 50 years, they usually don’t invent stories. There has usually been a fire somewhere IF they do a story about ‘smoke’ — though the smoke in the story might not have come from the fire that happened.

In this story, they don’t tell you what kind of snake it was — though in the picture that accompanied the story they show a King Cobra. It does say he (the man not the snake) was taken to a hospital and given an antivenom shot. He was released from hospital he next day.

Well, as headlines go, it sure beats ‘Man Bites Dog‘ or even yesterday’s story, below, of a Sri Lankan trying to stop an elephant by pulling its tail. Stuff that happens in that corner of Asia.

Click to ENLARGE. From the U.K. ‘Daily Mail’.

Catch An Elephant By Its Tail — Only In Sri Lanka!

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by Anura Guruge
on July 7, 2024

Click to ENLARGE. From the U.K. ‘Daily Mail’.
Prior posts about Temple Elephants on my old ‘nhlife’ blog.

I heard about this, this morning, on ‘BBC Radio‘ (that I listen to in the mornings during my amble). Another thing I have learnt, recently, from the BBC. They even mentioned that the keeper tried to stop the elephant by grabbing it by its tail! I was gobsmacked. That was pretty stupid. When elephants ‘go wild’ folks do the craziest things. Way back, close to 60 years ago, at a carnival at the (old) ‘race course’ in Colombo a baby elephant (under 1-year old) started running around and charging into tents. When it came into the tent we were in, my father, a BIG MAN (in every sense), whacked it, on the shoulder with his hand — with all his might. The baby, shrieked, just like a human baby, turned tail and ran away.

The media, including the U.K. Daily Mail & BBC claim that this happened at a Hindu festival. NOT SO. Hindu temple, BUT a Buddhist festival! Yes, ONLY in Sri Lanka. This temple, in southern Sri Lanka, ‘Kataragama‘, one that I used to visit multiple times a year during my time there, is the 2nd most popular Buddhist pilgrimage site in Sri Lanka. I would reckon that Buddhists visiting this temple outweigh Hindus by a million-to-1! Yes, Hindu temple, Buddhist temple.

I am NOT happy with how elephants are getting treated in Sri Lanka — especially by the Buddhists, who should no better. They should not be used for PERFORMANCES — religious or not.