Photo Credit: Tibor Yager/Flash90

The zookeeper in this picture is taking care of an elephant’s leg injury at the Ramat Gan Safari.

It’s a scary assignment, if you ask me. We have two cats, and when we need to clip their nails, it takes two of us to hold down each cat, preferably using kitchen mitts – and even then, it’s not always safe. The little furballs can get pretty nasty, never mind showing gratitude.

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So think what can happen when an elephant decides it’s had enough of your caring treatment…

Back in 2008, the granddaughter of Labor party bigwig Benjamin “Fuad” Ben Eliezer sneaked into the Safari with her boyfriend and upset the male elephant Motek, leader of the herd. Motek attacked the 17-year-old girl and she had to be rushed to the hospital in serious condition. The boyfriend, 20, was nowhere to be found.

Zoo officials told the press that Motek is their best behaved elephant – the last time he killed anyone was 43 years ago, when he was a youngster at the Tel Aviv zoo.

Last year, Ben Eliezer’s daughter was arrested at JFK on suspicion of bringing oxycontin into the country.

Now, if someone had thought to give Motek some oxycontin, Fuad’s granddaughter wouldn’t be in this mess.

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Yori Yanover has been a working journalist since age 17, before he enlisted and worked for Ba'Machane Nachal. Since then he has worked for Israel Shelanu, the US supplement of Yedioth, JCN18.com, USAJewish.com, Lubavitch News Service, Arutz 7 (as DJ on the high seas), and the Grand Street News. He has published Dancing and Crying, a colorful and intimate portrait of the last two years in the life of the late Lubavitch Rebbe, (in Hebrew), and two fun books in English: The Cabalist's Daughter: A Novel of Practical Messianic Redemption, and How Would God REALLY Vote.