Dead tiger cubs found in Thailand temple raid
Print Edition
THAI wildlife officials have discovered dozens of dead cubs inside a freezer at a controversial “tiger temple” which has been locked in a long-running dispute with authorities and animal rights groups, police said yesterday.
Wildlife officials found the tiger cubs during a continuing operation to remove dozens of adult cats from the Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua temple in the western province of Kanchanaburi.
“We found 40 tiger cubs today, they were aged about 1 or 2 days when they died but we don’t quite know yet how long they have been dead,” police colonel Bandith Meungsukhum, a local officer, said.
Adisorn Noochdumrong, the deputy head of Thailand’s parks department, said they would file charges against the temple for keeping the carcasses without permission. “A keeper said he was told to place the carcasses when they died in cold storage,” he said.
The temple has long proved a hit among mainly foreign visitors who flock there to be photographed — for a fee — next to the scores of exotic feline pets.
Wildlife officials say the whole complex is illegal and have battled the monks for years to try and close it down. The dispute has been complicated by the fact that secular Thai authorities are often reluctant to intervene in the affairs of the clergy.
This week officials were granted a court order to seize the cats and have so far removed around 45 adults.
Animals rights groups and conservationists have accused the temple of complicity in the hugely lucrative black-market wildlife trade, making tens of thousands of dollars by selling off older cats and animal parts for use in Chinese medicine.
Wildlife officials have also discovered during previous raids dozens of hornbills, jackals and Asian bears that were being kept at the sanctuary without permits.
The temple has always denied trafficking allegations.
In a statement on its Facebook page, the temple said it was common for cubs to be stillborn or die shortly after birth. The temple said it used to cremate dead cubs but the policy was changed in 2010.
“Instead of cremation, the deceased cubs were preserved in jars or kept frozen,” the statement added.
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