For many years wildlife activists are trying to rescue 137 illegally kept tigers from the Thai Tiger Temple in Kanchanaburi, Thailand. Now it looks like it’s finally going to happen! The decision was made when more than 1,000 officials came to the temple this Monday morning, May 30th. After being denied access to the temple, the officials returned with a search warrant to remove the tigers illegally being kept on the temple grounds.
The Buddhist temple is officially named Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua Yanasampanno, but is better known as the Thai Tiger Temple. After many years of protest from wildlife activists and temple critics from around the world, they finally gave in.
The effort, led by the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, is supposedly no longer obstructed by the tiger temple and its staff. For years the temple is being accused of abuse and trafficking of big cats for the Chinese market. Tourists from all over the world visited the temple to take pictures with these magnificent animals. The temple has been accused of drugging the tigers to keep them quiet. Anyone can imagine that otherwise these wild animals would never sit for tourists to take their pictures. There are many movies on YouTube where the tigers can be seen almost falling over because of the drugs. For every animal lover around the world these are heartbreaking movies to watch.
Edwin Wiek, the founder of Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand, has been calling for the tigers removal for many years. He was on the scene for yesterday’s operation to take away the tigers. He covered the events via Twitter updates. The updates have been given the hashtag: #TigerTempleCloseDown. More updates at #TigerTempleTakeDown and #TigerTemple
We are happy that the tigers from the Tiger Temple will finally be free. And we applaud the Thai Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation for their effort to bring a halt to the mistreating of these beautiful animals. Hopefully there will be more of these actions for other wildlife in Thailand. The elephants and many other animals in Thailand are still being mistreated for the tourism industry.
Unbelievably tourists were still entering the Tiger Temple while animal rescuers were taking away some of the tigers. This goes to show how ignorant some people are. It’s important to better educate people worldwide about what happens to animals in these kinds of tourist traps. It all starts with teaching our kids to respect nature and all its beautiful animals.
We support all efforts in stopping these cruelties against any wildlife anywhere in the world.
UPDATE: 40 Tiger cubs bodies found in freezer of Tiger Temple
Today, June 1, 2016, is a sad day for the tigers. Rescue workers have found dead 40 tiger cubs in a freezer in the temple grounds. Why they were kept there nobody knows. Most likely they were meant for the Chinees ‘medicine’ market. There were also other body parts found, said Tom Taylor from Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand, who was apparently there when they made the discovery.
