Thailand's Tiger temple sues conservationists

[Guest guest]

It is unfortunate that Edwin Wiek emphasized that the tigers

at the " Tiger Temple " are hybrids, in disclosing the charges brought

against him by Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua Yannasampanno in Kanchanaburi,

Thailand, because the most significant issues that Wiek has helped

to bring to light at the " Tiger Temple " involve allegations of

practices that would be criminal if done to a mongrel street mutt,

and the response of the temple in filing a SLAPP suit against him

should be a matter of concern to every activist & journalist.

 

The acronymn SLAPP stands for Strategic Lawsuit Against

Public Participation. The idea behind a SLAPP suit is for the target

of protest to force the persons who bring alleged offenses to public

notice to expend resources and time in defending themselves. The

calculation behind a SLAPP suit is that the plaintiff will spend less

money to silence protest through legal action than if the matter

under dispute was resolved or rectified by other means.

 

This is the gist of Wiek's complaint:

 

> At the Tiger temple (Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua Yannasampanno, Kanchanaburi)

>hundreds of foreign tourists daily visit the zoo to see and make pictures

>with the tigers...For a morning experience people pay 4,500 baht

>(120 US dollars) per person to feed the cubs and watch the

>cub-exercise session.

> At least a dozen tigers are being dragged from their small

>enclosures every afternoon down to a sun-backed hot valley to pose

>with tourists. These

>tigers are extremely lethargic and allegations have been made that they are

>being been drugged. When tigers are not obedient before, during or after the

>photo-session they are sprayed by the keepers with urine from bottles in

>their eyes and faces and/or hit with wooden sticks on their backs and heads.

 

 

These practices violate the standards of all of the leading

zoo associations worldwide. They would be illegal in the U.S., and

probably elsewhere. They are, nonetheless, commonly followed at

Asian zoos and other wildlife exhibition facilities. I have

witnessed and documented similar in China and Bali, Indonesia.

 

If authenticated at Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua Yannasampanno, such

practices are probably as illegal in Thailand as anywhere else,

despite the difficulty of bringing and pressing charges.

 

 

As previously noted, Wiek's next complaint is irrelevant

from an animal welfare perspective, and dubious from a conservation

perspective as well:

 

>All tigers at the Tiger Temple are hybrid tigers that originated from a

>commercial tiger farm in Ratchburi province. The value to conservation of

>hybrid wildlife is zero. The release of hybrid wildlife back to the wild is

>considered a biological crime by conservation experts worldwide.

 

As pointed out, the late Billy Arjan Singh

long ago demonstrated that captive-bred hybrid tigers can be used

successfully to restore wild populations. Similar techniques have

been used to boost the recovery of Florida panthers.

 

However, authentic conservation issues are involved in the

allegations against " Tiger Temple " practices. As Wiek wrote:

 

 

>In the past years several tigers from the tiger temple have

>mysteriously disappeared once mature, and some when there were

>excess cubs. The copy of a contract was found in 2008 where the

>tiger temple agreed to send tigers to an illegal tiger farm in Laos,

>signed by the tiger farmer, the abbot of the temple and a member of

>the temple board. The export or exchange of protected wildlife such

>as tigers is illegal by Thai law and the international treaty CITES

>(Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species). The

>Department of National Parks, Plants and Wildlife has never issued a

>permit to the tiger temple to exchange or export tigers. As a matter

>of fact the tigers at the temple have been confiscated in 2002 as

>they were illegally obtained, but were allowed to stay at the temple

>as the authorities had no shelter

>available to care for the tigers while the authorities were looking in to

>the legal case.

 

 

Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua Yannasampanno purports to be a Buddhist

temple, but despite the widespread operation of alleged Buddhist

temples as quasi-roadside zoos and petting zoos, it would be

difficult to find any rationale for such in the teachings or

practices of the Buddha.

 

 

 

--

Merritt Clifton

Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

P.O. Box 960

Clinton, WA 98236

 

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Fax: 360-579-2575

E-mail: anmlpepl

Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org

 

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