Thai wildlife authorities found 40 tiger cub carcasses in a freezer in Thailand’s Tiger Temple on Wednesday as they removed live animals in response to global pressure over suspected trafficking and abuse.
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Thailand’s wildlife authorities on Wednesday broke the news about bodies of 40 cubs being found from a freezer inside the complex.
The temple denies allegations of trafficking.
Tiger body parts in particular are highly valuable in Asia, where they’re sold on the black market to be used in traditional Chinese medicinal practices, such as tiger bone wine, a “potion” made from the bones of tigers that is mistakely believed to make its consumers strong and virile.
“They must be of some value for the temple to keep them”, he said.
“The welfare of the tigers at the DNP facility is well below that at the Tiger Temple”, the temple’s Facebook page said.
Thai authorities intercepted a monk trying to leave the kingdom’s controversial “tiger temple” with skins and fangs on Thursday, officials said, the latest discovery to fuel long-running accusations that the zoo is involved in the illegal wildlife trade. “Today we found tigers skins and amulets in a vehicle which was trying to leave a temple”, Anusorn told the Agence France-Presse on Thursday.
Officials from the National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department allegedly found the dead animals while they were searching Wat Pa Luangta Maha Bua Yannasam-panno, more widely known as the Tiger Temple. “I would never have thought they would be so blatant”. 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.
In the past, there have been demands that the activities at the Tiger Temple be investigated. The remainder of the animals will be removed in the coming days.
The temple has been popular with westerners for decades, visited by tourists wanting to take “tiger selfies” with big cats that animal rights campaigners warn are routinely sedated.
Kasetsart University Faculty of Forestry lecturer Anak Pattanavibool said the authorities were right to relocate the tigers because the state was the animals’ rightful owner.
Killing an animal is one of the five capital sins for a Buddhist monk according to the 2,500-year-old code of monastic discipline, leading to a member’s immediate exclusion from the monkhood.
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In addition to more skins that were later found in monks’ quarters, officials discovered a live lion, hornbill, sun bear and banteng (an endangered species of wild cattle) inside the temple compound. “However now with a lot more focus on the Temple, it is time to respond”.
