Video: Tiger poked for tourists' amusement as Pattaya park official blames Burmese

 

Picture: Tnews

 

A sickening video posted by a Dutch environmentalist on Facebook showed a tiger being repeatedly prodded with a stick so it would roar for tourist photos.

 

An official at the well known Pattaya park where it was filmed has defended his operation and blamed a Burmese handler.

 

While the foreign wildlife activist - well known in Thailand - called it the "ugliness of Pattaya tourism" and called for a change in the law as Thailand prepares to celebrate National Wildlife Day.

 

The video of about one minute duration shows a handler poking the tiger who opens its mouth and roars for a succession of gawking tourists. It has been view more than a million times and shared 15,000 times with many people commenting that it is disgusting treatment of a proud wild animal.

 

It was posted by Petchaburi resident Edwin Wiek who has been campaigning for animal rights in Thailand for years.

 

He said on his Facebook page: "Today witnessed the ugliness of tourism and wildlife in Pattaya; this tiger gets poked all day, hundreds of times a day so it will roar for the picture with tourists. Time for a change of laws. Sharing this in advance of Thai National Wildlife Day on December 26th".

 

Following the post Tuesday Tnews went to the Million Years Stone Park and Crocodile Farm in Pattaya where they spoke to Suan Phanomwatanakul an executive who admitted that it happened at his park.

 

He blamed a Burmese handler called "Min" who was in charge of the tiger who was doing it so he could get more tips.

 

He said such behavior was completely against his park's regulations and the Burmese man had been punished and transferred to other duties.

 

Suan said if anything like this happens again he will personally call the police.

 

He defended the park saying that the animals are loved and well cared for and given healthy food.

 

He thanked the public for helping to improve what they do and improve the image of Pattaya as a tourist destination. 

 

Source: Tnews

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2017-12-21

 

 

25 minutes ago, webfact said:

He said such behavior was completely against his park's regulations and the Burmese man had been punished and transferred to other duties.

Yup, I heard that Min has been reassigned to the night-shift, cleaning all the bits of chicken out of the crocodile 'fishing' ponds.

 

It's all OK, the crocs sleep at night.

If you get caught,blame the Burmese,how did the park not know

what was going on,management never leave the offices,hope they

are well insured for when the Tiger gets really pissed off and bites

the head off a tourist,time to blame the Burmese again.

regards Worgeordie

A Tiger's roar is very loud, so I am a little unsure how park management never heard it?!!

Always the foreigner's fault - Thais never accept they might just be in the wrong.

Doubt the Burmese is to blame here at all!

Thailand treats its captive wildlife with complete disregard for national laws.  The monks at the Tiger Temple who had 149 tigers confiscated from them including many that were like this tiger drugged and forced to perform in front of tourists, were never charged with any offence, and now are preparing to open a new tiger facility under a different business name, possibly with some of the same confiscated tigers, that will be returned to them by the DNP. Members of the public should be posting more to social media as that seems the only way to force the government to take action. It should be Thai and not foreign wildlife activists leading the protests to have these shocking facilities shut down. 

Never mind blaming the minion......the owners of the business are responsible for what goes on there and training the operatives............ These places should really be closed down, they are against all we know about the treatment of wildlife and conservation

41 minutes ago, Dibbler said:

Thailand treats its captive wildlife with complete disregard

Yes, it also treats foreigners with complete disregard. 

6 minutes ago, cms22 said:

Yes, it also treats foreigners with complete disregard. 

To be fair, the same goes for the Thais who are not connected or rich.

48 minutes ago, Dibbler said:

Thailand treats its captive wildlife with complete disregard for national laws.  The monks at the Tiger Temple who had 149 tigers confiscated from them including many that were like this tiger drugged and forced to perform in front of tourists, were never charged with any offence, and now are preparing to open a new tiger facility under a different business name, possibly with some of the same confiscated tigers, that will be returned to them by the DNP. Members of the public should be posting more to social media as that seems the only way to force the government to take action. It should be Thai and not foreign wildlife activists leading the protests to have these shocking facilities shut down. 

I totally agree with you I have been many times to the river Kwai area and passed the no longer thank god Tiger temple I never stopped didn't. fancy it and I was right in the end.

I have been to the Pattaya Tiger park and restaurant 7-8 times I have never seen any bad treatment thet keepers play with the tigers and it all seems a nice and very clean place. 

3 hours ago, webfact said:

He blamed a Burmese handler called "Min" who was in charge of the tiger who was doing it so he could get more tips.

 

He said such behavior was complet ely against his park's regulations and the Burmese man had been punished and transferred to other duties.

Ah, a pesky Burmese. Heaven forbid it should have been a Thai. And now transferred to an inactive post.

Typical Thai's feeding bullshit.....to the public when caught out.

 

I searched Youtube under Tiger in Phuket being pocked and you would be surprised at how many cruel videos of Tigers being hit or pocked by Thais as far as 7 years back you can see.

 

Seems to be the way to bring in the stupid tourists, until one tuns on one and kills them, and then they will say, oh solly, no have insurance, Tiger angry !

 

Never been and never will go, why would anyone want to support such cruelty, to get a photo....dumb asses IMO

 

Edited December 21, 20178 yr by 4MyEgo

The poster "Edwin Wiek" is not being charged with defamation or breaching the Computer Crime Act for placing Thailand in a bad spotlight?

Look at the tigers eyes in the video. Totally stoned from Thai injected drugs. The guy that owns this park should be arrested for inhumane treatment of an endangered species!

 

Oh but the owner simply blames and says " Burmese fault" ? Gutless Thai boss. Always blame the staff who are paid next to nothing and follow the big boss orders so as to keep their job.

 

Also the tourists, being mostly Chinese, could not give a damn about the tigers health! They probably eat most parts of a tiger as for Chinese superstition it's an aphrodisiac. As long as they show their woman/women>>> Look here how brave I am in this photo. What a joke!

Edited December 21, 20178 yr by wavemanwww

10 minutes ago, PAIBKK said:

The poster "Edwin Wiek" is not being charged with defamation or breaching the Computer Crime Act for placing Thailand in a bad spotlight?

Not yet, but I packed my toothbrush already.

Seems one worker managed unseen to kill off some fish and a load of bees. After that he also managed to kill off a couple of chimps, mixed them altogether and fed it to the lions.

When the lions asked what it was he said, fish, chimps and mushy bees. ???

Hopefully the drugs won't affect tiggers memory.

I had the misfortune to take my kids to the Dolphin show, Hua Yai road.  Saddest thing I've seen in ages, 4 very sad creatures, one clearly very sick.  Elephants at Nong Nooch the same, no respect or kindness to animals whatsoever, only the money they bring in.  Doesn't matter what it is, croc farms, zoos or monkey's and snakes on Walking Street everywhere there is animals and money.

 

One of the lowest, most indefensible aspects of Thailand.

8 minutes ago, Wildliferescue said:

Not yet, but I packed my toothbrush already.

I wish you the best. 

Done a good job !!!

But always beware as the Thai have more faces. Especially when they're losing face. Foreigners have been jailed for less !!!

Edited December 21, 20178 yr by PAIBKK

this tiger is definitely drugged... shame

2 hours ago, animalmagic said:

A Tiger's roar is very loud, so I am a little unsure how park management never heard it?!!

It's called selective hearing.

Burmese and brake failure... Thailand’s default setting.

"Suan said if anything like this happens again he will personally call the police."

 

DUH! Sack the handler on the spot! 

 

Suan is an 'executive' there? An 'executive' wimp by the sounds of it. I bet that (similar to others in the Kingdom) he has no understanding of accountabilty and responsibility. Too often too quick to blame the foreigner.

Intelligent tourists don't support these "wildlife" parks where the animals are drugged up every day and they don't ride elephants. Unfortunately, it appears most tourists here have little understanding of the matter.

if you poke me like this I would not only roar........maybe the tiger needs some extra lessons....!

Well he blamed the Burmese because they are working there. But I blame the Zoo for hiring them. And the tigers should be out in the wild.

Poor thing drugged up to the eyeballs

That Jerk should be fired...and the park fined for abuse of a animal.Can't tell me the park was not aware what he was doing? The real danger was to the tourist taking photo's with that Tiger! It only takes a few minutes and your dead...What a joke!

Edited December 21, 20178 yr by 6thST
Misspelled word...

They only forced to do this with animals, because they could not teach the million year old stones any tricks.