Hanoi - Authorities in a northern Vietnamese province are seeking government permission to shoot a domesticated elephant that has killed two handlers this year, an official said Wednesday. The Forestry Department of Thanh Hoa province sent a request to the Ministry of Agriculture last week asking for the go-ahead to kill the rare Asian elephant, which is more than 30 years old, according to Le Quoc Viet with the department.
"The elephant is very angry now and it may kill anyone getting close to it," Viet said.
"But killing it is not a simple thing because it is a rare kind of animal," he said. "There must be approval from relevant authorities.
The 1.3-ton elephant killed two workers at Song Lo Forestry Farm in May this year and has been menacing ever since. The aging animal has been moody since the farm's only other elephant died two years ago.
Forestry farms in Vietnam often use domesticated elephants to pull timber. Some tourism companies in the Central Highlands also use elephants to carry tourists.
So far this year, working elephants have killed at least six people in Vietnam, including four handlers, one elephant owner and a tourist guide.
Wild elephantsonce roamed Vietnam by the thousands but the country now has fewer than 100 elephants left in the wild due to hunting and clearing land for farming, environmentalists say.
The rarity of the creatures makes the government reluctant to allow any elephants to be killed, even if they are violent.
In 2001, a herd of eight rogue elephants in southern Binh Thuan provinces killed 20 settlers.
Rather than hunt them down, the government responded with a massive operation to relocatethe animals to a more remote nature reserve.
