Wildlife Officials Raid Thai Zoo, Find Beheaded Tiger and Illegally Smuggled Cubs
During a raid at Thailand’s Mukda Tiger Park and Farm this week, wildlife officials made a shocking discovery. They found a severed head and the body of a tiger, five illegally smuggled live tigers, and several other dismembered animal corpses.
Beheaded tiger discovered among grim haul of pelts and animal corpses during wildlife trafficking raid on zoo in Thailand https://t.co/htdIyzgvDm
— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) December 1, 2020
According to sources, the owner of the facility will be imprisoned for five years if he is convicted of illegally smuggling wildlife. The zoo’s license will also be suspended for three months.
Thailand’s Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation previously removed locally protected red pandas, monkeys, and tortoises from the zoo in 2018.
The grisly discovery at Mukda Tiger Park and Farm is just the latest case of cruelty and sadness at a Thai zoo. Zoos around the world draw in visitors with baby animals, but when the animals are older and unwanted, they’re sold for canned hunts or killed for their body parts. Thailand has some of the worst animal attractions in the world, and it’s time for authorities to shut these places down.
What You Can Do
As long as tickets are sold by facilities that use animals for entertainment, sentient beings will continue to be trafficked, traded, and tortured. Please pledge never to visit any place that profits from live animals and urge friends and family to leave cruel tourist traps off their vacation itineraries, at home or abroad.
Remember: Animals are not ours to use for entertainment. If there’s any risk that your vacation experience is going to hurt or cause stress to a living, feeling being, it’s not worth it.
