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WFFT - PRESS RELEASE - 2/2/2010
Tiger temple sues conservationists and newspaper reporter over complaints of illegal wildlife possession, animal torture and alleged illegal trade in tigers with foreign countries without permit.
Three local conservationists are being handed over by police to court on Wednesday the 3rd of February at 10:00AM at the provincial court of Kanchanaburi Province. The three are being accused of defamation by the infamous Tiger Temple after a news article in the Thai Post newspaper in April 2009 where accusation were made about animal torture, illegal wildlife trade and possession taking place at the tiger temple. All three conservationists and animal welfare experts were quoted in this article as having a derogatory opinion of the tiger temple.
At the Tiger temple (Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua Yannasampanno, Kanchanaburi) hundreds of foreign tourists daily vist the zoo to see and make pictures with the tigers. Entrance fee is 500 baht per person while making “special photos” costs 1,000 baht extra. For a morning experience people pay 4,500 baht per person to feed the cubs and watch the cub-exercise session.
At least a dozen tigers are being dragged from their small enclosures every afternoon down to a sun-backed hot valley to pose with tourists. These tigers are extremely lethargic and allegations have been made that they are being been drugged. When tigers are not obedient before, during or after the photo-session they are sprayed by the keepers with urine from bottles in their eyes and faces and/or hit with wooden sticks on their backs and heads. All tigers at the Tiger Temple are hybrid tigers that originated from a commercial tiger farm in Ratchburi province. The value to conservation of hybrid wildlife is zero. The release of hybrid wildlife back to the wild is considered a biological crime by conservation experts worldwide. In the past years several tigers from the tiger temple have mysteriously disappeared once mature, and some when there were excess cubs. The copy of a contract was found in 2008 where the tiger temple agreed to send tigers to an illegal tiger farm in Laos, signed by the tiger farmer, the abbot of the temple and a member of the temple board. The export or exchange of protected wildlife such as tigers is illegal by Thai law and the international treaty CITES (Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species). The Department of National Parks, Plants and Wildlife has never issued a permit to the tiger temple to exchange or export tigers. As a matter of fact the tigers at the temple have been confiscated in 2002 as they were illegally obtained, but were allowed to stay at the temple as the authorities had no shelter available to care for the tigers while the authorities were looking in to the legal case. A zoo permit was issued on a plot of land next to the temple on the name of a commercial enterprise in July 2009, however nothing has been built there to this date and the tigers are currently still being exploited on temple grounds.
Comments and complaints made by many conservationists and animal welfare activists were made to make people aware about the torture, illegal trade and the real value to conservation and to make a stop to the suffering of animals.
People being charged:
Edwin Wiek
Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand (WFFT)
Tel: 08-90600906
edwin.wiek@wfft.org
Web: http://www.facebook....eb;www.wfft.org
Dr. Surapon Duangkae
Wildlife Fund Thailand under Royal Patronage
Tel: 08-67790454
suraponwft@gmail.com
Mr. Sawan Sangbunlang
Thai Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
Tel: 08-19347374
info@thaispca.org
Web: http://www.facebook....ww.thaispca.org
Websites on the tiger temple:
http://www.facebook....empletruths.org (informative website)
http://www.facebook....id=293971072672 (discussion group)
http://www.facebook....gid=95165464756 (discussion group)
CITES website http://www.facebook....b;www.cites.org
Edwin Wiek
Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand
108 moo 6, Tambon Thamairuak
Amphoe Thayang
Edited by MHM, 2010-02-02 20:18:39.
