Breeding mice to feed snakes may violate Thailand's Animal Welfare Act

[webfact]

Breeding mice to feed snakes may violate Animal Welfare Act
The Nation

BANGKOK: -- LOCAL officials in Uttaradit's Thong Saen Khan district have called on higher authorities to apply the Animal Welfare Act when inspecting and approving a plan for the "world's largest" snake farm in the area.

Pisit Wongthong, vice president of Tambon Namphi Administrative Organisation, said the Bt300-million snake farm was being built on a 163-rai site in Namphi, and the owner was applying for a permit at Protected Area Regional Office 11 in Phitsanulok province. A public forum is due to be held on tomorrow.

Pisit said he had learnt that the farm has already started breeding 1,000 snakes and raising 10,000 mice to feed the snakes. The issue that concerns locals, he said, was whether breeding mice to be fed to snakes violates the 2014 Animal Welfare Act.

So, he said, related authorities should investigate the project as soon as possible.

"People are wondering why the authorities have been delaying the investigation. Isn't breeding mice to feed snakes a form of animal abuse? If there is a misunderstanding, then the related agencies should explain it to the public," Pisit said.

Wisut Sarapat, chief of Uttaradit Provincial Livestock Office, said feeding snakes with live mice caused unnecessary trauma to the animal and violates Sections 3 and 20 of the Animal Welfare Act - which is punishable by up to two years in jail and/or a fine of up to Bt40,000.

However, Wisut said he could not take any legal action against the farm owner without authority from the Livestock Development Department chief.

Full story: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Breeding-mice-to-feed-snakes-may-violate-Animal-We-30256154.html


-- The Nation 2015-03-17

[roo860]

This people are unbelievable!!

[chooka]

Not enough rats running around the streets?

[Soutpeel]

round up all the soi dogs then ?

[oneday]

Then I guess breeding chickens, cows, ducks, pigs and other animals consumed by humans are in violation of Thailand's Animal Welfare Act. All these people protesting should be made to only consume vegetables and become vegetarians...hypocrites.

GIVE ME A BREAK!

[Songhua]

No. Monks starving a sun bear to death is animal abuse. Feeding mice to snakes is nature.

[trogers]

Hungry snakes do devour each other. Is that against the Act as well?

[Anthony5]

All those " green" boys are one of the biggest problems in society all over the world.

[LuckyLew]

If I lived in Uttaradit the breeding of mice for snake consumption would be the least of my worries

Would be more worried about being near the world largest snake farm ...

How many snakes and crocs got free during the large flood a few years back?

[PythonHouse]

This headline is misleading. The article says that "feeding" live mice to snakes is in violation of the Animal Welfare Act.

Humanely euthanised mice/rats are fed to pet snakes worldwide.

There are also laws in other countries as to the size of the cage the rats/mice are kept in, the type of food they are fed, the number of rats/mice in each cage etc.

I breed rats & mice for my snakes. The rats are laboratory rats (not wild type). Each "family" consists of 2 females and 1 male. The families produce babies which are then used to feed my snakes. My rat breeding conditions abide by international laws. The family rats eventually die of old age!

My rats are fed on the most expensive & nutritional rat food available (produced by CP), regularly get grains, fruit & vegetables and their sawdust bedding is changed every 3 days. I have just bought them all inside the house as it is getting too hot in the garage, they now have fans on them too, the temp is a consistent 28 deg and are very comfortable. All of this is necessary to breed healthy rats as too much fat in their diet, poor nutrition and increased heat stops them breeding or they produce small litters.

As to feeding snakes "wild" rats. This is not an option. The wild rats carry parasites which can be transmitted to the snakes.

[Daniel Ingalls]

This is absolutely crazy, first, a group of mice are not livestock, second, they are rodents not household pets. They are killed by cats, housewives standing on high chairs with brooms, poisoned, and stomped on by people on the street.

What will be next? Outlawing the killing of Roaches? The national bird, a Mosquito?...............with all the suicides, murders, looting, mugging, rape, don't you think there are more important issues than the well-being of mice?

[stephenterry]

If I lived in Uttaradit the breeding of mice for snake consumption would be the least of my worries

Would be more worried about being near the world largest snake farm ...

How many snakes and crocs got free during the large flood a few years back?

This is certainly the biggest concern - or should be. And I wonder that this could be the true local concern pasted over by complaining about feeding live mice to thousands of potentially deadly snakes.

Having said that, I wouldn't like to be a live mouse living in close quarters to a bunch of hungry snakes.

[metisdead]

A troll post has been removed.

[ggt]

OMG...with thousands of street people begging for food...we worry about breeding mice to feed snakes...this is a violation of Thailand's animal welfare act...OH P L E A S E !! Spare me...

[kimamey]

No. Monks starving a sun bear to death is animal abuse. Feeding mice to snakes is nature.

Surely snakes catching mice in the wild is nature not them being fed mice.

[ldiablo]

There is a law going before parliament which states that any persons found to have murdered or injured a mosquito will be brought before the courts under the new Animal Welfare Act which is punishable by up to 2 minutes in jail and,or a 2B fine.

Edited March 18, 2015 by ldiablo

[maidee]

thainess, when buddism is used, only when it suits them

is prostitution not a cruel thing ?

sending your daughter to go sex slave so you can watch your rice grow and in the meantime, enjoy life with friends, having some beer, lao kao, etc...

[uptheos]

They're doing their best to breed snakes and I'm doing my best to get rid of them.

[MaxYakov]

Then I guess breeding chickens, cows, ducks, pigs and other animals consumed by humans are in violation of Thailand's Animal Welfare Act. All these people protesting should be made to only consume vegetables and become vegetarians...hypocrites.

GIVE ME A BREAK!

It isn't the breeding, it's the consumption of live animals. Humans don't usually consume live chickens, cows, etc. (except under exceptional circumstances when it would be equally traumatic to the human, except for the hard-core). Maybe they should train the snakes to raise the mice. They don't do much all day as it is.