450 Tigers Seized From Private Thai Zoo

[sriracha john]

Zoo transfer up for review

Previous government's Night Safari resolution may be overturned

The Cabinet is to review the transfer of the Chiang Mai Night Safari to the Zoological Park Organisation in a meeting on Tuesday, Surapong Towichakchaikul, an MP from the ruling PPP, said. The politician made the statement while attending a forum organised by the opponents of the transfer plan, which was passed under a cabinet resolution by the Surayud government. According to Surapong, Deputy PM Somchai Wongsawat pledged to submit the issue for a Cabinet review on Tuesday. Surapong said Somchai has already asked the Budget Bureau to consider allocating a budget to the Night Safari to keep things running the way they are. The budget allocation was suspended by the previous government to facilitate the transfer process. The MP will also push for the reopening of the Royal Flora Ratchaphruek Expo site. Chiang Mai Night Safari Director Uppatham Pavaputanont said yesterday that the transfer of the zoo has been delayed by legal problems. According to Uppatham, since the resignation of Thongchai Pansawat, Chief of the Designated Area for Sustainable Tourism Administration (DASTA), no one has dared to take a decision or sign documents regarding the transfer plan. The zoo is said to be operating at a loss in recent months. The zoo had earned an income of more than 160 million baht over the last two years, but the deposited money could not be withdrawn from the bank for use by anyone under the present circumstances, he said. Before leaving office, the Surayud Cabinet on Jan 22 instructed DASTA to transfer all of the assets of the 1.5-billion-baht park, including animals and staff, to the zoo organisation within 30 days. DASTA must also revoke the status of the 819-rai park as a special tourism development zone and return some of the land to Suthep-Pui National Park. Chiang Mai Night Safari, initiated by the Thaksin administration, officially opened on Feb 6, 2006.

Continued here:

http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/24Feb2008_news10.php

[sriracha john]

Zoo transfer up for review

Previous government's Night Safari resolution may be overturned

The Cabinet is to review the transfer of the Chiang Mai Night Safari to the Zoological Park Organisation in a meeting on Tuesday, Surapong Towichakchaikul, an MP from the ruling PPP, said. The politician made the statement while attending a forum organised by the opponents of the transfer plan, which was passed under a cabinet resolution by the Surayud government. According to Surapong, Deputy PM Somchai Wongsawat pledged to submit the issue for a Cabinet review on Tuesday. Surapong said Somchai has already asked the Budget Bureau to consider allocating a budget to the Night Safari to keep things running the way they are. The budget allocation was suspended by the previous government to facilitate the transfer process. The MP will also push for the reopening of the Royal Flora Ratchaphruek Expo site. Chiang Mai Night Safari Director Uppatham Pavaputanont said yesterday that the transfer of the zoo has been delayed by legal problems. According to Uppatham, since the resignation of Thongchai Pansawat, Chief of the Designated Area for Sustainable Tourism Administration (DASTA), no one has dared to take a decision or sign documents regarding the transfer plan. The zoo is said to be operating at a loss in recent months. The zoo had earned an income of more than 160 million baht over the last two years, but the deposited money could not be withdrawn from the bank for use by anyone under the present circumstances, he said. Before leaving office, the Surayud Cabinet on Jan 22 instructed DASTA to transfer all of the assets of the 1.5-billion-baht park, including animals and staff, to the zoo organisation within 30 days. DASTA must also revoke the status of the 819-rai park as a special tourism development zone and return some of the land to Suthep-Pui National Park. Chiang Mai Night Safari, initiated by the Thaksin administration, officially opened on Feb 6, 2006.

Continued here:

http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/24Feb2008_news10.php

UPDATE....it's done... now let the corruption money flow resume...

Agency to run Night Safari

The Cabinet yesterday ordered a controversial agency to run Chiang Mai's Night Safari. The Designated Area of Sustainable Tourism Administration of Thailand (DASTA) was revived on January 22 when the Cabinet revoked a decision in 2006 to disband the agency.

DASTA was established by the Thaksin Shinawatra government as part of its populist policies and was allegedly aimed at favouring big-time contractors.

Local communities opposed it because it did not allow them to take part in tourism industries.

- Daily Xpress (today)

[MaryJane]

Seems pretty amazing that the authorities responsible didn't close down the Zoo following the earlier tiger sale to China and the discovery of all those "illegally imported" orang utangs there (or was that another place?). Suppose the cops and other officials who swarmed into the place during earlier raids just "forgot" to notice and ask for documentation for the 450 tigers.

It'll be pat on the back time at CITES now, and then back to business as normal next month when the journos and NGOs have gone home. Or perhaps not? Perhaps this time it signals a more serious stance on wildlife trafficking in the Kingdom. Would be good news for the long suffering and fast - dwindling endangered animals of Asia if so............

Just for the record, the orangutans were at Safari World, outside BKK.

And YES, let's all hope that things do NOT go back to the status quo after CITES is over and Thailand resumes it's place as one of the biggest shopping centers for illegal animals in the world.

I was at Sri Racha Tiger Zoo at the end of Feb/08.

Very sad to see the great number of tigers housed in small cages. Hundreds...seemed to be caged according to size, many had wounds.

They also have camels, elephants, a wombat, two orangutans (that I saw) lots of alligators you can feed chicken legs to. Then when you leave feeding them there is a huge line up at a food booth (Chinese-predominately) seemed to be the most popular place in the facility?? ALLIGATOR on a stick. I was just sick! I just finished fattening them up for these people!!

The Orangutans were amazing, they seem to look in your eyes to your soul...unbelievable. However, very sad and unfair to all the beautiful creatures.

Pic attached

[Tony Clifton]

It's a good thing you didn't travel up north to see the human zoo with the Karen tribe...

[sriracha john]

Seems pretty amazing that the authorities responsible didn't close down the Zoo following the earlier tiger sale to China and the discovery of all those "illegally imported" orang utangs there (or was that another place?). Suppose the cops and other officials who swarmed into the place during earlier raids just "forgot" to notice and ask for documentation for the 450 tigers.

It'll be pat on the back time at CITES now, and then back to business as normal next month when the journos and NGOs have gone home. Or perhaps not? Perhaps this time it signals a more serious stance on wildlife trafficking in the Kingdom. Would be good news for the long suffering and fast - dwindling endangered animals of Asia if so............

Just for the record, the orangutans were at Safari World, outside BKK.

And YES, let's all hope that things do NOT go back to the status quo after CITES is over and Thailand resumes it's place as one of the biggest shopping centers for illegal animals in the world.

I was at Sri Racha Tiger Zoo at the end of Feb/08.

Very sad to see the great number of tigers housed in small cages. Hundreds...seemed to be caged according to size, many had wounds.

They also have camels, elephants, a wombat, two orangutans (that I saw) lots of alligators you can feed chicken legs to. Then when you leave feeding them there is a huge line up at a food booth (Chinese-predominately) seemed to be the most popular place in the facility?? ALLIGATOR on a stick. I was just sick! I just finished fattening them up for these people!!

The Orangutans were amazing, they seem to look in your eyes to your soul...unbelievable. However, very sad and unfair to all the beautiful creatures.

Pic attached

Thank you for your post. The facility continues to illegally breed hundreds of tigers, destroying the gene pool... There is a tremendous amount of money behind selling these tigers, primarily to China.

As can be seen over the life of this thread, that money overcomes any international efforts to stop the illegal animal trading. The huge resources also allows for the positive PR, which continues to bring in hundreds of visitors daily, who are completely unaware of the dark side to this reprehensible and destructive place.

The Tiger Breeding Factory (it's misnomer to call it a zoo) is a continued blight on Sriracha's landscape.

[Tony Clifton]

I have never gone to that zoo but I`ll be paying a visit very soon and do a photo expose of the place.

[sriracha john]

I have never gone to that zoo but I`ll be paying a visit very soon and do a photo expose of the place.

When you do go... be covert about it. They are not ones to fool with.

[MaryJane]

Does anyone know if this place has opened back up?

Here are some pics of the tigers there from feb/08.

[tig28]

Intensive captive breeding and gene research with endangered species, has been an essential part of modern zoo management for over 30 years, Siberian Tigers, Snow leopard captive breeding and release programs are being , successfully carried out !!if we had not started captive breeding and artificial insemination, the only raptors left in UK would be a few kestrels and the odd owl, as far as asian tigers are concerned the only thing stopping more being released into the wild,is the lack of safe reserve land to release them and also the lack of protection, there are a few nightmare stories about animals being released and within 7 days turning up on ships and planes on their way to europe or the states.Nignoy

I think it is fairly unrealistic to imagine you can release tigers back into the Thai countryside. They'd be dead in a week because Som Chi won't put up with tigers running around his chickens and nursing on his pigs. Let's face it Thailand is not the land of ecological planning and ethics. I'm suprised we still have rats. If they're lucky they'll still have some non-agricultural trees around in 20 years.

They'd be dead in a week because Som Chi won't put up with tigers running around his chickens and nursing on his pigs. Let's face it Thailand is not the land of ecological planning and ethics. I'm suprised we still have rats. If they're lucky they'll still have some non-agricultural trees around in 20 years.

That's a pretty shallow throw away theme ----- sounds like every "developed" country worldwide.

Native forests in western countries ?

I guess we could start a list of the species eradicated to safeguard livestock and crops in "developed" countries?

ethics and ecology in developed countries ?????????

[TAWP]

We have animals that kill livestock and humans in forests back home and they are protected from general hunting. They can only be hunted during assigned hunting periods and a set number of animals can be downed according to estimations of total population.

So, no, it doesn't sound like every developed country worldwide.

[toptuan]

It quoted police as saying that the zoo started breeding tigers illegally in 1992, but did not explain why it took 12 years to take action against it.

Pretty simple. Someone missed a payment to the local BIB.

[barky]

The painfully hard to swallow bad news is that Tigers will be all gone in our lifetime.

As long as the demand is there in places like China, Tibet the U.S A for that matter ( eg: tiger paw soup can give me a bigger and harder penis) the Tiger is finished. And as long as Asian countries (eg: India, Russia, China) pay only lip service to conservation it's goodbye to these wonderful beautiful animals. One way to stop this would be to shoot poachers on site and put dealers , police, and government officers in front of a firing squad when sentenced. But at the end of the day until the demand stops these poor animals don't have a hope. They're gonners. So, get yourself and the kids down to the zoo and have your pictures taken near the Tiger enclosure and stick it in the family album to show the grand children.

A possible solution is to build the industry legally and successfully as they did in Australia with the salt water crocodiles. Sure Tigers are gonna die for the <deleted>-wit morons out there that think consuming some part of a tiger is going to improve their sex life, but it is possible in an industrial set-up tigers as a comodity just may survive for a while longer, just not in the wild.

[klikster]

So, if the zoo is still open, what can you see if they have no tigers?

The breeding factory is still open and has hundreds of tigers. They are being mass produced through such practices as in-breeding which is causing havoc on the limited gene pool.

The owners are well-connected and with the high fees they charge (particularly for foreigners) from the hundreds of visitors who are unaware of it's severely tainted history, they have a big cash flow.... which allows them to stay in business.

Why would someone go to the Sri Racha "Zoo" when the Khao Kaew(sp?) Open Zoo is nearby? They have/had white tigers.

[Plus]

We have animals that kill livestock ,and humans in forests back home and they are protected from general hunting. They can only be hunted during assigned hunting periods...

Just a little tweak.

[phaethon]

It quoted police as saying that the zoo started breeding tigers illegally in 1992, but did not explain why it took 12 years to take action against it.

They would still be operating if Samak hadn't cooked one on live TV...

Edited September 15, 2008 by phaethon

[animatic]

Zoo transfer up for review

Previous government's Night Safari resolution may be overturned

The Cabinet is to review the transfer of the Chiang Mai Night Safari to the Zoological Park Organisation in a meeting on Tuesday, Surapong Towichakchaikul, an MP from the ruling PPP, said. The politician made the statement while attending a forum organised by the opponents of the transfer plan, which was passed under a cabinet resolution by the Surayud government. According to Surapong, Deputy PM Somchai Wongsawat pledged to submit the issue for a Cabinet review on Tuesday. Surapong said Somchai has already asked the Budget Bureau to consider allocating a budget to the Night Safari to keep things running the way they are. The budget allocation was suspended by the previous government to facilitate the transfer process. The MP will also push for the reopening of the Royal Flora Ratchaphruek Expo site. Chiang Mai Night Safari Director Uppatham Pavaputanont said yesterday that the transfer of the zoo has been delayed by legal problems. According to Uppatham, since the resignation of Thongchai Pansawat, Chief of the Designated Area for Sustainable Tourism Administration (DASTA), no one has dared to take a decision or sign documents regarding the transfer plan. The zoo is said to be operating at a loss in recent months. The zoo had earned an income of more than 160 million baht over the last two years, but the deposited money could not be withdrawn from the bank for use by anyone under the present circumstances, he said. Before leaving office, the Surayud Cabinet on Jan 22 instructed DASTA to transfer all of the assets of the 1.5-billion-baht park, including animals and staff, to the zoo organisation within 30 days. DASTA must also revoke the status of the 819-rai park as a special tourism development zone and return some of the land to Suthep-Pui National Park. Chiang Mai Night Safari, initiated by the Thaksin administration, officially opened on Feb 6, 2006.

Continued here:

http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/24Feb2008_news10.php

UPDATE....it's done... now let the corruption money flow resume...

Agency to run Night Safari

The Cabinet yesterday ordered a controversial agency to run Chiang Mai's Night Safari. The Designated Area of Sustainable Tourism Administration of Thailand (DASTA) was revived on January 22 when the Cabinet revoked a decision in 2006 to disband the agency.

DASTA was established by the Thaksin Shinawatra government as part of its populist policies and was allegedly aimed at favouring big-time contractors.

Local communities opposed it because it did not allow them to take part in tourism industries.

- Daily Xpress (today)

So the DASTArdly Dept still lives,

One wonder show many animals WON'T because of this...

[animatic]

It quoted police as saying that the zoo started breeding tigers illegally in 1992, but did not explain why it took 12 years to take action against it.

They would still be operating if Samak hadn't cooked one on live TV...

No, no, Kuhn Snout never cooked a tiger on TV,

he did do a great job of cooking his own goose though!

Edited September 15, 2008 by animatic

[thefalang]

I have heard reports from Thais & Falangs regarding the terrible conditions at the Phuket zoo on Soi Parlai near Chalong. I've heard that the animals are beaten and live under horrible conditions. Isn't there any Gov't dept or animal society in Thailand that oversees the care of animals in captivity such as this?