3 monks charged in Thailand for bid to smuggle tiger skins
Print Edition
THAI authorities charged three Buddhist monks yesterday after they were caught trying to smuggle tiger skins and charms made from tiger parts out of a temple which monks said was a tiger sanctuary but critics claimed was a money-spinning tourist trap.
The temple in Kanchanaburi province, west of Bangkok, has long been popular with tourists who paid about US$20 each to get in and pose for pictures with its tigers, and to feed cubs and walk among them.
But the Buddhist temple had come under mounting allegations of abuse and illicit wildlife trafficking and authorities armed with a court order raided it on Monday to confiscate the 137 tigers found there and take them to a government wildlife sanctuary.
The discovery yesterday of the tiger skins and charms, or amulets, made from skins in a pick-up truck, and jars containing the bodies of tiger cubs in the temple, pointed to an even more lucrative business than thought.
“The jars have labels, so I think they’ve made medicine here,” said Adisorn Nuchdamrong, deputy director-general of the Department of National Parks, who has been overseeing the raid to remove the temple’s tigers and search its premises.
Authorities found 20 glass jars containing baby tigers and tiger organs in a “laboratory” in the temple, reinforcing suspicion it was making folk medicine.
Tiger parts are used in traditional Chinese medicine, a multi-million dollar business that has driven tigers to the brink of extinction and fueled the rearing of tigers in parts of Asia.
Two temple devotees and a monk found in the pick-up truck, and two monks who helped load it, were charged under wildlife laws, Adisorn said.
The confiscation of the tiger products followed the discovery on Wednesday of 40 dead tiger cubs in a freezer.
Wildlife officials suspect the cubs were being preserved for use in potions.
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