Anderson Cooper Talks About Bangkok's Illegal Wildlife Trade

[Guest guest]

Hello AAPN Members

 

Here is a link to CNN's Anderson Cooper's program this week in which he

investigates the illegal wildlife trade in Thailand. Please note they used

hidden cameras (see description below).

 

Barbara Lamb

Toronto, Canada

 

http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/anderson.cooper.360/blog/

 

Inside Bangkok's illegal wildlife trade

 

I haven't been to Bangkok, Thailand, in more than 10 years, and a lot has

changed since then. This city's growth has been explosive. There are now

highways built on top of the old highways I remember, though the roads still

seem clogged through much of the day, just as they were 10 years ago.

 

We've come to Southeast Asia this week to focus on trafficking. When most people

hear that word, they probably think about drug trafficking, and that is clearly

the major item being trafficked around the world, but many of the criminal

enterprises that smuggle drugs use the same routes to traffic women and children

and also animals.

 

We'll head to Cambodia later this week to investigate the trafficking of women

and children in the sex industry, but tonight, we are investigating the illegal

wildlife trade in Thailand. Bangkok has become a major hub for the buying and

selling of endangered and threatened species.

 

Over the weekend, our hidden cameras captured several endangered primates and

turtles being sold in shops in the market. Today, my crew and I went along with

Thai police as they raided the main animal market here in Bangkok. It was an

interesting experience, though also a frustrating one for police and animal

welfare workers.

 

When the police arrived, many of the shops were locked-up, and under Thai law,

the police couldn't break-in. They did manage to recover more than 100 birds.

The conditions in which they were kept were pretty depressing. A bunch of the

birds were dead, lying in the bottom of dirty, cramped cages. But it wasn't a

big find, and no arrests were made.

 

We are traveling this week with wildlife biologist Jeff Corwin, who also joined

us recently in the Amazon rainforest. We also are working with Steve Galster,

who is helping Thai police on behalf of a conservation organization.

 

This past weekend, Jeff and Steve crossed the border into Myanmar, formerly

known as Burma, and tonight, Jeff will show you the illegal trade in animal

parts and skins. A lot of animals are being killed for " medicinal " use in Asia.

Rhino horns and tiger claws and all sorts of body parts are dried and ground up.

It's a multi-billion dollar business, and a number of species are nearly extinct

because of it.

 

Tonight's program will be broadcast from the main animal market in Bangkok, so

it should be a pretty colorful show.

 

The other major focus tonight will be Iraq. We'll talk to Michael Ware, who has

been covering this war from the beginning, and we'll also hear from New York

Times reporter Michael Gordon. See you soon!

 

Posted By Anderson Cooper: 2:54 PM ET