Tiger Temple investigators find suspected slaughterhouse

Four live tigers and 12 empty cages found during police raid at house 30 miles from temple in western Thailand

Associated Press in Bangkok

Tuesday 7 June 201612.23 BST Last modified on Tuesday 7 June 201622.00 BST

Thai police have found what they believe is a slaughterhouse and tiger-holding facility used in a suspected animal trafficking network.

Acting on a tip, officers raided a home about 30 miles from the Tiger Temple, a popular tourist attraction that allows visitors to pose for photos with the tigers and take them for walks.

Investigators believe the house, in an isolated area and surrounded by tall fences, served as a holding facility and slaughterhouse, said police colonel Montri Pancharoen, deputy commander of the crime suppression division, which oversaw the raid.

“We believe it was used by the Tiger Temple to hold live tigers before slaughtering them for their skins, meat and bones to be exported outside the country, or sent to restaurants in Thailand that serve tiger meat to tour groups,” he said.

The house had a work area with a large chopping board and a variety of knives, which authorities believe served as the slaughter area.

Police detained two caretakers at the facility, who claimed the tigers were the private property of the home’s owner, said Montri. Police are searching for the owner.

“The Tiger Temple is just a starting point, or a supplier,” he said. “We have information that the Tiger Temple is not the only place that supplies tigers to illegal smugglers.”

Last week authorities removed more than 137 tigers from the temple grounds and found 40 dead tiger cubs in a freezer and 20 more preserved in jars.

Animal rights activists have long accused the temple of mistreating its tigers. The government suspects its monks have been involved in illegal breeding and trafficking of the animals.

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Thai police charge 22 with wildlife trafficking from tiger temple

Three monks among those charged as police remove more dead animals from tourist temple, including bear and leopard

Reuters in Kanchanaburi

Friday 3 June 201613.41 BSTLast modified on Friday 3 June 201613.47 BST

Thai police have charged 22 people, including three Buddhist monks, with wildlife trafficking and have removed more dead animals, including a bear and a leopard, from a Buddhist temple known as the tiger temple.

The temple in Kanchanaburi province, west of the capital, Bangkok, has been a major tourist attraction for more than two decades, with visitors paying 600 baht (£12) admission to pose for photographs with the tigers.

Wildlife activists have accused the temple of illegally breeding the tigers, while some visitors on online forums complained that the tigers appeared sedated. The temple denies the accusations.

Adisorn Nuchdamrong, from Thailand’s department of national parks, said 22 people had been charged with wildlife possession and trafficking, including 17 members of the temple’s foundation and three monks who were trying to flee with a truck full of tiger skins.

The seizure followed the grim discovery on Wednesday of the bodies of 40 tigers cubs inside a freezer. It remains unclear why the dead tiger cubs were being stored, although tiger bones and body parts are used in traditional Chinese medicine.

Read on … 

Thailand Tiger Temple monk held 'for smuggling'

2 hours ago

Thai authorities say they have detained a monk attempting to smuggle tiger skins and fangs from a Buddhist temple.

Operators at Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua temple, known as the "Tiger Temple", are accused of wildlife trafficking and animal abuse. They deny the charges.

On Wednesday, wildlife officials found the bodies of 40 dead tiger cubs at the temple complex.

The discovery came during a week-long effort to relocate 137 tigers from the tourist site in Kanchanaburi province.

The temple operators had resisted previous attempts to remove the tigers.

Police intercepted the monk, and two other men, in a lorry leaving the temple in western Thailand on Thursday.

The authorities confiscated two full-length tiger skins, about 700 amulets made from tiger parts, and 10 tiger fangs, Teunchai Noochdumrong, director of of the Wildlife Conservation Office, told the BBC.

"This confiscation shows that the temple is likely involved in illegal tiger trade. They are clearly violating the law in selling, distributing of transferring the protected animals or their parts," she said.

Wildlife authorities in Thailand have said they will press charges against the temple.

On Wednesday, tiger cub corpses were found in a freezer at the complex, along with body parts from other animals.

Police Col Bandith Meungsukhum told the Agence France-Presse news agency the cubs would have been one or two days old, but it was not clear how long they had been dead.

They will be DNA tested to see whether they were related to other tigers at the site.

Officials say the temple operators could be charged with keeping the carcasses without permission.

The temple previously said it had decided in 2010 to stop cremating cubs which died soon after birth. It has always denied trafficking allegations.

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Tiger Temple looses bid to extend zoo license

Date: February 26, 2016

Source: Reuters - Light News Video Online / Powered by NewsLook.com

Summary: A controversial Buddhist temple in Thailand has lost a bid to renew its zoo license and is being investigated for suspected wildlife trafficking. Rough Cut (no reporter narration). Video provided by Reuters

Video here

FOUR PAWS step in to help animals at Thailand’s renowned “tiger temple”

Posted on May 6, 2015 by Adam Rahman

International animal welfare organisation FOUR PAWS has announced it will be working to find a solution to help nearly 150 tigers at the Luangta Maha Bua Temple in Thailand, a well-known tourist site which is more commonly known as “tiger temple”.

FOUR PAWS has been in contact with the committee of the temple in order to discuss how they could help improve the situation for the big cats kept there. The temple has gained notoriety among animal welfare supporters around the world. The Buddhist monks are keeping around 147 tigers there; visitors can pay to have their picture taken with the animals, pet them and even lead them around on a leash. Last week, a senior on-site veterinarian at the temple said in a statement that three tigers from the temple were missing. This, combined with increasing criticism of the conditions at the tourist attraction, led the local authorities to undertake a check of the temple last Friday.

FOUR PAWS is experienced in big cat care and operates a large sanctuary for big cats in South Africa, which is home to around a hundred rescued lions and tigers. Vet surgeon Dr. Amir Khalil from FOUR PAWS reported from the site in Thailand: “We have been trying for some time now to convince the management of the temple that the tigers are not kept in a species appropriate way. The animals are exposed daily to large numbers of visitors which causes constant stress, they are fed the wrong food and spend most of their time in small concrete cages or kept chained in the temple area. In addition, there is no controlled breeding program, many animals exhibit characteristics of inbreeding. This is definitely not an endangered species program, but a tourist attraction, at the expense of the animals!”

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Thailand's Tiger Temple: Unsafe, cruel, and riddled with false marketing, claims new report

Tiger-loving tourists are contributing to animal abuse, risking their own lives - and are uncovered by insurance, says Care for the Wild 

May 2013. Thailand's famous Tiger Temple, a popular tourist destination, is misleading tourists into believing that it is a tiger sanctuary when it is actually nothing more than a money-making petting zoo where the animals must suffer mistreatment on a daily basis, says a new report. 

Temple of Lies, by Care for the Wild International, reports on the controversial Temple in Kanchanaburi. Aiming to discover if controversy about the establishment has merit, the charity can reveal the following concerns: 

Animal welfare issues 

· Tigers are kept in bare enclosures well below international standards 

· Tigers are kept locked up for the majority of the day 

· Tigers are manhandled, hit, sat on and generally forced to perform for the public 

Tourist Safety 

· Tourists must sign a disclaimer on entry removing the Temple of blame for injuries 

· There are no safety zones, visible panic buttons or equipment in case of emergency 

· The only safety briefing given to visitors is: ‘If at any time you run in front of the tigers, your day will end miserably' 

Continued: http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/tiger-temple013.html

Tiger temple under investigation as Thai authorities clamp down on captive tigers

Tiger Temple under investigation
September 2012. Thai authorities have swooped in on captive tiger owners in two locations to see if laws had been broken, resulting in one arrest in one case and a confrontation that could lead to further action or lawsuits in another. Both actions demonstrate the serious challenges facing Thai authorities in dealing with the country's large captive tiger population.

Four tigers confiscated
In Pathumthani, two adult tigers and two tiger cubs were confiscated in a raid on a private apartment. Thai Nature Crime Police conducted the raid after intelligence showed that the owners were involved in the illegal wildlife trade. The tigers were sent to a government care center.

Tiger Temple
The temple is already mired in controversy after the Sun newspaper published a video showing the abuse that goes on at the temple, and how the tigers are baited and treated for the ‘benefit' of tourists. 

The temple, a popular tourist destination, has seen its tiger population grown from 7 to 100 in the past eight years, raising questions about the sustainability of the temple's tiger management, and where the tigers are being sourced.

Responding to this latest media coverage the Chief Executive of Care for the Wild International, Philip Mansbridge, said: "As we recently highlighted in the launch of our new RIGHT-tourism.org campaign, the Tiger Temple is just one of thousands of examples of how wildlife is threatened and abused around the world to provide so called entertainment for tourists. The Tiger Temple like many other animal attractions claims that it is a wildlife sanctuary, when in fact the animals in its care are subject to appalling conditions, inappropriate food, no real veterinary care and regular abuse to generate money from tourists.

Continued:  http://www.wildlifeextra.com/do/ecco.py/view_item?listid=1&listcatid=1&listitemid=14667