Their Rescue is Waiting: Exploitation of Slow Loris' in Pattaya city, (Walking Street tourist area), Thailand..

March 11, 2008

11th of March, 2008.

To:

Edwin Weik

Wildlife Friends of Thailand.

Hello Edwin, and Wildlife Friends of Thailand!

This is my second e-mail to you. I submitted this message previously to you on

07/03/2008,

and have not received a reply as yet. Perhaps my previous e-mail got overlooked.

I think your assumption is correct. The animals I saw in Pattaya do resemble the

Slow Loris

which you have alluded to. Please excuse my apparent lack of zoological

expertise.

I would describe the animal I saw as being small, with very large eyes; and the

movements of its limbs

were quite slow. It 's small human-like 'hand' tenderley reached out to me

with the most

kindest and gentlest grasp of my finger. At that moment, I instantly felt so

sorry for this poor creature's plight

you would not believe.

Whenever tourists photographed the animal it's head slowly

recoiled, arching way back, at the brightness of the flash. This torment

occurred repeatedly.

I think I also recall the animal I saw having a patch of its fur missing from

its body from some

form of injury.

A hill-tribe-lady and her partner had possession of a couple of these Loris

animals at the time.

Is it possible that the Slow Loris and it's partner could be rescued and

returned to the wild?

It is not in the animals' welfare/ interests to be exploited like that in

Pattaya, amidst hordes of cigarrette smoking, drunken tourists; they

are in constant danger of being seriously harmed. i.e dropped onto the concrete

road.

Edwin, you represent 'Wildlife Friends of Thailand'. Do you think either

yourself or someone from your

organization can physically attend at Walking Street, Pattaya, and rescue these

animals, and return them

to the wild?

By asking/questioning local persons in the vicinity of Walking Street, you would

quickly locate

these creatures and their captors. Otherwise take a stroll down Walking Street,

at about midnight, and

I'm sure you will locate them quite easily.

The owners of the Loris' appeared to be not so financially well-off.

I am of the opinion that perhaps they would accept some monetary offer

to hand the creatures over to you.

Also maybe these persons are in possession of more Loris's than just the two I

observed.

I don't know what the best rescue strategy is. But I'm hoping that you and your

organization can think of something

to safely secure the Loris' and return them to their native habitat.

I would be most interested to hear from you about any action that is taken

which will

lead to the saving, rehabilitation and release of these wonderful creatures.

I look forward to hearing from you and Wildlife Friends of Thailand , soon.

Best Wishes and Regards,

Frank

P.S.

Regarding your questions in your previous e-mail:

The Tarsier pictures are not taken in Pattaya.. I obtained them from the the

site:

http://curiousanimals.net/funnies-bunnies/tarsiers-freedom-forever/

whose address I supplied in my initial e-mail to you.

The photos were used as an identification/visual aid in an effort to describe

the creature that I saw

in my alert email to readers at the aapn forum.

Looks like the animals concerned in this particular instance (Pattaya) are now

most probably abused Loris'.

Nevertheless...their rescue is waiting...

--\

------

Edwin Wiek <edwin.wiek

Frank Malecki <citizenwatch299

Cc: Guna Subramaniam/ CWI <guna; Ulrike Streicher

<uli

Wednesday, 5 March, 2008 10:30:36 PM

RE: Exploitation of tarsiers in Pattaya city, (Walking Street tourist

area), Thailand..

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Hi Frank,

We are fully aware of how a tarsier looks

like. The pictures you just send me are made on the walking street in Pattaya?

If

not please show me some of these, as I am still not convinced that it is

anything else then a slow loris. (see our website on the campaign and news

pages)

With bets regards,

Edwin Wiek

Frank Malecki [citizenwatch299]

Wednesday, 05 March, 200816:49

edwin.wiek; info

Fw: Exploitation oftarsiers in Pattaya city, ( Walking Street tourist

area), Thailand â€¦.

To:

Wildlife Friends of Thailand ;and

Edwin Weik

Exploitation of tarsiers/tarsier type species inPattaya city, (

Walking Street tourist area), Thailand â€¦.

Help!: These small gentle creatures are being abused in Pattaya city,

Thailand !

In Pattaya city, late at night/early in the

morning, (around midnight), in the touristy Walking Steet area, tarsiers

are offered to travellers to hold and handle. The female owner/handler of

the animal offers her flash-camera for a fee, or alternatively allows tourists

for a fee, to photograph the animal using their own cameras.

These animals have large extremely light

sensitive night-vision eyes. Their heads recoil back at the bright camera flash

every time they are photographed. They are handled and photographed like that

repeatedly. It is really depressing to know that these creatures are being

regularly abused like that. The owners of the animals are only concerned in

making money by exploiting them in this way.

(The owners of the animals appear to be

northern Thailand

hill- tribes people, i.e. possibly Hmong, or similar, judging them from

their costume/clothing)

Most tourists are unaware just how sensitive thelarge night vision eyes of

these animals are. Some tourists hold and cuddle theanimals while smoking their

cigarettes, and subject them to their cigarettesmoke. The animals are always in

danger of being dropped, and injuredespecially by drunken tourists.

I wish there was something that could be done to prevent this cruelexploitation,

of these gentle, sensitive, creatures.

The animals are then also offered to tourists

during daylight hours, along busy Pattaya

Beach road between Soi

(street) 10 and Walking Street .

Thesite below gives some more information on these (endangered) animals:

P.S. I thought these creatures were only found in the Philippines ,but looks

like their is an Asian mainland variety of them in existence aswell.

I believe the Philippines variety is an endangered species in near extinction.

I would appreciate a reply regarding this urgent Thailand precinct matter.

I have included some photos of what the animals look like, as an attachmentfile.

I am certain the animals in question at Pattaya are definitely tarsiers.

Thank you

Yours Faithfully

Frank Malecki

Get the name you always wanted with the new y7mail email address.

Getthe name you always wanted with the new y7mail email address.

Get the name you always wanted with the new y7mail email address.

www.7.com.au/y7mail

March 12, 2008

Hi Mr Malecki,

Sorry that I could not reply to you within a day or two. Unfortunately I have

lots of work and first things come first, and the care for hundreds of wild

animals at our center is just that. I get at some days up to 10 complaints from

tourists about wildlife exploitation in Thailand and take them all serious.

I replied to you the day before yesterday and informed you that I visited

Pattaya a short while ago with the representative of an international animal

welfare/wildlife NGO and did see the people with the lorises, made pictures of

them and did talk to them (until they started to threaten us) to find out more

about the animals and their origin.

The cases where documented and we did send a full report and official complaint

to the DNP (Department of National Parks) for follow up. Although we did follow

up on the complaints by registered mail and phone calls with the authorities we

never received any written reply nor did we see any action taken against the

crimes.

If you want to help the lorises as well please also send a complaint to the DNP,

the more the better. their website is www.dnp.go.th for contact details.

As I told you earlier in my last mail to you we (even as a registered

foundation) have no jurisdiction at all to arrest a person or confiscate any

animal, so this is all we can do for now. The education of tourists is another

point however, all these Europeans, Australians , Americans and who knows where

else they come from should know better then to facilitate this exploitation by

paying for the picture taking... still lots of education work to do... but by

who? A forced education program on Bangkok airport maybe for all arriving

tourists, guess not.

I am sure you are aware of my personal e-mail so feel free to contact me

directly again at any time, but please give me a bit of time to reply, I am not

always in or near an office and wi-fi does not do well in dense forests...

Edwin Wiek

WFFT Thailand

--- On Tue, 11/3/08, Frank Malecki <citizenwatch299 wrote:

Frank Malecki <citizenwatch299

Their Rescue is Waiting: Exploitation of Slow Loris' in

Pattaya city, (Walking Street tourist area), Thailand..

aapn

Tuesday, 11 March, 2008, 6:09 PM

11th of March, 2008.

To:

Edwin Weik

Wildlife Friends of Thailand.

Hello Edwin, and Wildlife Friends of Thailand!

This is my second e-mail to you. I submitted this message previously to you

on 07/03/2008,

and have not received a reply as yet. Perhaps my previous e-mail got

overlooked.

I think your assumption is correct. The animals I saw in Pattaya do resemble

the Slow Loris

which you have alluded to. Please excuse my apparent lack of zoological

expertise.

I would describe the animal I saw as being small, with very large eyes; and

the movements of its limbs

were quite slow. It 's small human-like 'hand' tenderley reached out to me

with the most

kindest and gentlest grasp of my finger. At that moment, I instantly felt so

sorry for this poor creature's plight

you would not believe.

Whenever tourists photographed the animal it's head slowly

recoiled, arching way back, at the brightness of the flash. This torment

occurred repeatedly.

I think I also recall the animal I saw having a patch of its fur missing

from its body from some

form of injury.

A hill-tribe-lady and her partner had possession of a couple of these Loris

animals at the time.

Is it possible that the Slow Loris and it's partner could be rescued and

returned to the wild?

It is not in the animals' welfare/ interests to be exploited like that in

Pattaya, amidst hordes of cigarrette smoking, drunken tourists; they

are in constant danger of being seriously harmed. i.e dropped onto the

concrete road.

Edwin, you represent 'Wildlife Friends of Thailand'. Do you think either

yourself or someone from your

organization can physically attend at Walking Street, Pattaya, and rescue

these animals, and return them

to the wild?

By asking/questioning local persons in the vicinity of Walking Street, you

would quickly locate

these creatures and their captors. Otherwise take a stroll down Walking

Street, at about midnight, and

I'm sure you will locate them quite easily.

The owners of the Loris' appeared to be not so financially well-off.

I am of the opinion that perhaps they would accept some monetary offer

to hand the creatures over to you.

Also maybe these persons are in possession of more Loris's than just the two

I observed.

I don't know what the best rescue strategy is. But I'm hoping that you and

your organization can think of something

to safely secure the Loris' and return them to their native habitat.

I would be most interested to hear from you about any action that is taken

which will

lead to the saving, rehabilitation and release of these wonderful creatures.

I look forward to hearing from you and Wildlife Friends of Thailand , soon.

Best Wishes and Regards,

Frank

P.S.

Regarding your questions in your previous e-mail:

The Tarsier pictures are not taken in Pattaya.. I obtained them from the the

site:

http://curiousanima ls.net/funnies- bunnies/tarsiers -freedom- forever/

whose address I supplied in my initial e-mail to you.

The photos were used as an identification/ visual aid in an effort to

describe the creature that I saw

in my alert email to readers at the aapn forum.

Looks like the animals concerned in this particular instance (Pattaya) are

now most probably abused Loris'.

Nevertheless. ..their rescue is waiting...

March 12, 2008

Hello Edwin,

Thank you for your reply.

I can assure you that I received no follow up e-mail from you as you state,

until half an hour after I forwarded my second e-mail to you yesterday.

I am glad that the urgent matter regarding the plight of the loris' of Pattaya

is recorded in your current active files list.

I understand that you are very busy.

Hope this matter is not placed in the 'too difficult' basket, and that the case

is reviewed with the objective of a successful

strategy being formulated which will result in the freeing of these animals.

Frank Malecki

--\

-----------------

Edwin Wiek <edwin.wiek

Frank Malecki <citizenwatch299

Cc: AAPN <aapn >

Wednesday, 12 March, 2008 11:10:59 AM

Re: Their Rescue is Waiting: Exploitation of Slow Loris' in