Over 100 wild animals 'rescued' from Hua Hin zoo

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buksida
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Over 100 wild animals 'rescued' from Hua Hin zoo

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The authorities launched a major raid at Hua Hin Zoo in Prachuap Khiri Khan’s Hua Hin district yesterday, while investigations into the Tiger Temple and the case of stolen rare tortoises continue.
More than 100 wild animals were seized Hua Hin Zoo by the National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department (DNP) inspection team, led by Phraya Sua Taskforce commander Chaiwat Limlikitaksorn. The team claims many of the animals in the zoo did not match the licences taken for them.

Chaiwat said the raid revealed that all the protected animals in the zoo had been acquired illegally.

"We inspected the zoo on May 28 and found a couple of suspicious mistakes on two of the elephant licences, so we looked further and found that all the licences for protected animals were fake," he said.

"According to the licences issued in 2003, all the animals should be over the age of 13, but it turned out that all the animals in question were below the age of 10. This is proof that the zoo forged the official documents and obtained the wild animals unlawfully," Chaiwat alleged.

"The zoo owner Prakorb Chamnankit is being sued over these accusations,."

The animals seized from the zoo yesterday include two elephants, two tigers, five Asian black bears, two Malayan sun bears, two deer, one fishing cat and one crocodile. All these animals will be sent to wildlife breeding centres across the country.

He went on to say that staff at this zoo had been arrested twice previously for acquiring protected animals—the first time in 2014 and the second just last month.

Source: The Nation
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Re: Over 100 wild animals 'rescued' from Hua Hin zoo

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Just like in the west. Anything to make some money.
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Post by hhinner »

I'm confused. Is this the Hua Hin Zoo that just opened? Does the report of previous arrests in 2014 refer to when the staff involved were working elsewhere?
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Re: Over 100 wild animals 'rescued' from Hua Hin zoo

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Elephant moved, two others impounded in Hua Hin
A special task force on Monday moved an impounded elephant from a zoo in Hua Hin and seized two others after finding they did not match their identification papers.

Such inconsistencies indicate they might have been wild animals illegally brought to captivity.

Chaiwat Limlikit-aksorn, chief of the Phaya Sua special task force, led a team to move an impounded 25-year-old male elephant from Hua Hin zoo after learning it had been relocated without approval.

In June, the task force examined the elephant. According to its ID, the pachyderm was 14 years old and did not have tusks. But a physical examination and a DNA test revealed it should be around 25 years old with two one-metre tusks. The team then impounded the elephant but still allowed the zoo to take care of it.

Later, the team found that the zoo had moved the elephant elsewhere, reasoning that its contract hiring the animal from its owner for shows had ended.

The task force, working under the prime minister's Section 44 powers, on Monday took the elephant to a centre in Cha-am district and will later transfer it to the Thai Elephant Conservation Centre in Lampang.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general ... in-hua-hin
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