Tigers seized from Thailand temple over wildlife trafficking claim

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/may/30/tigers-seized-thailand-buddhist-temple-wildlife-trafficking-claim

an interesting video on above site


Wildlife authorities in Thailand have raided a Buddhist temple where tigers are kept, taking away three of the animals and vowing to confiscate scores more in response to global pressure over wildlife trafficking.

The Buddhist temple in Kanchanaburi province, west of Bangkok, has more than 100 tigers and has become a tourist destination where visitors take selfies with tigers and bottle-feed their cubs.
The temple promotes itself as a wildlife sanctuary, but in recent years it has been investigated for suspected links to wildlife trafficking and animal abuse.
Wildlife activists have accused the temple’s monks of illegally breeding tigers, while some visitors have said the animals can appear drugged. The temple denies the accusations.


The raid on Monday was the latest move by authorities in a tug-of-war since 2001 to bring the tigers under state control.
Adisorn Nuchdamrong, the deputy director general of the department of national parks, said the team had been able to confiscate the tigers thanks to a warrant obtained a few hours before the operation.
“We have a court warrant this time, unlike previous times, when we only asked for the temple’s cooperation, which did not work,” Adisorn said.
“International pressure concerning illegal wildlife trafficking is also part of why we’re acting now.”
Officials from the department of national parks, wildlife and plant conservation said they planned to confiscate and remove more tigers from the temple on Tuesday and send them to a state-owned sanctuary.
Previous attempts to inspect the tigers have largely been blocked by the temple’s abbots, but in January and February wildlife officials removed 10 of the tigers.
Thailand has long been a hub for the illicit trafficking of wildlife and forest products, including ivory. Exotic birds, mammals and reptiles, some of them endangered species, can often be found on sale in markets.
The government introduced animal welfare laws in 2015 aimed at curbing animal abuse, but activists accuse authorities of not enforcing the legislation properly.

are the tigers gay?? why is this even on gay thailand board??

Shut up Latin. Wombats posts are like games of cricket. Ocassionally an interesting one shows up. This one is one of those. And actually this action is long overdue as I have been convinced for many years of the monks ulterior motives.

Another sacrilegious statement.

A Thai guy took me to the Tiger Temple many years ago. At the time I’d not heard of it and I didn’t know what to expect and I was unprepared for being so close to tigers and walking around with them. I don’t like zoos and felt uneasy about the place but have grown much more uneasy in subsequent years having read stories about it on the web.


This most recent update doesn’t look good.


http://www.khaosodenglish.com/detail.php?newsid=1464757648

Another perspective from inside the Tiger Temple.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgar...mple-1.3612049

http://bangkok.coconuts.co/2016/06/1...eer-gary-agnew

Surfcrest

Kinda agree that the place shouldn't exist but let's not pretend they'll be "saving" these tigers. They can't be released to the wild so where are they going to put them? Doubt that the lives of the animals will improve much, if at all, when they are rescued.

could ship them to reputable zoos who have a bona fida breeding programme around the globe so as to improve genetic diversity.

Latin: It's almost impossible to do that. Most of the tigers there seem to be generic. Breeding programmes require the animals to be genetically pure species. And zoos simply don't want them. I think the best thing to do is to leave them where they are, improve the conditions if possible and let them die out naturally funded by continued visitors.
The only problem with that is that a tiger is probably worth about $40-50'000 in the Chinese medicine market so you'll need to find someone to run the place who is not going to sell a few.

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Originally Posted by Steve1903

Kinda agree that the place shouldn't exist but let's not pretend they'll be "saving" these tigers. They can't be released to the wild so where are they going to put them? Doubt that the lives of the animals will improve much, if at all, when they are rescued.

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I read somewhere that the temple will be re-branded a "zoo", and the Department of Wildlife seizes the tigers from the temple and rents them out to the zoo. The tigers won't notice the difference and don't even have to relocate.

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Originally Posted by christianpfc

I read somewhere that the temple will be re-branded a "zoo", and the Department of Wildlife seizes the tigers from the temple and rents them out to the zoo. The tigers won't notice the difference and don't even have to relocate.

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Whilst that would seem the most logical outcome for all concerned it seems from reading a post Surfcrest had posted from a farang guy with inside knowledge of such matters that the whole zoo idea is now dead in the water as it was to be privately funded and they believe that all the negative publicity around this story has now killed off any chance of that ever happening.

Also interesting to note that he stated that the whole episode is a result of infighting at the temple between two sides vying for supremacy, as with all things in Thailand there is no doubt money behind the whole story at some level and things are never quite what they first seem perhaps.

A lot of interesting to'ing and fro'ing going on between the public and the Tiger Temple management (and their volunteer staff) on the tiger temples main page on Facebook right now covering all the aspects of the case and just as Surfcrests post said nothing is quite like it seems perhaps.

The government ( apparently) knew all along about the tiger cubs in the freezer and have inspected them numerous times in the past and the answer is that the cubs were kept to prove that they WEREN'T selling tiger cubs in secret. Other things like when the Government are coming to move the tigers now ( to smaller cages !) when being moved a tiger shouldn't be fed for 24 hours so the drugs work to sedate them, the temple are still feeding the animals which is increasing their risk of death when being moved. The Government are claiming this is all part of the plan by the temple to be able to say the Government are killing the tigers by moving them, whereas the temple state, hold on you're moving maybe 10 tigers a day tops, boy you're refusing to telling us in advance which ones, so what are we meant to do starve their 140 tigers indefinitely "just in case" they're being moved that day !?

So, I have no idea who is right or wrong but there's certainly more to this than meets the eye perhaps and it's just terribly sad that the wellbeing of the Tigers is getting mixed up in the middle of it all as they get shunted about from one small cage to another :-(

Here's the link to the Temples Facebook page for those who wish to follow what's going on in something close to real time.

https://www.facebook.com/TigerTempleTH/?fref=nf

For years and years it was already well known what a disgrace and mess the Tiger Temple in Kancha was. I guess someone made a stink and that's why they suddenly clean it up.

It's certainly a decade too late.

Justaguy: I suspect that it was somewhat different than just someone kicking up a stink. That the monks refused to cut someone in on a slice of the action.

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Originally Posted by arsenal

Justaguy: I suspect that it was somewhat different than just someone kicking up a stink. That the monks refused to cut someone in on a slice of the action.

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Absolutely and that someone then made the stink :)