Yesterday, officials from the National Park organization announced their search for a group of protected animal hunters that have been showing off their kills in a private Facebook group that boasted 13,000 members.
It became known that the netizens with the gruesome hobby have also, apparently, been trading endangered and protected animals from their group as well, when their photos were made public on Friday on the popular Queen of Spades Facebook page, whose admin has been threatened and cyber bullied since sharing the pictures.
When she saw the photos online, she felt obliged to share them because she thought that killing animals is hardly something to brag about. She also noted the important distinction between killing to eat and killing for fun.
Thai officials are now trying to find eight people who posted pictures of dead animals — including one of crab-eating macaque, Malayan porcupine, leopard cat, great barbet, gibbon each and a number of eagles and flying squirrels.
Not all of the images are illegal, as some of the species killed were not endangered or protected. However, hunters in Thailand need licenses to have guns and bullets and must do their deeds in certain areas and restrict themselves from killing many species.
Officials also need to investigate if the killers broke the Wildlife Preservation and Protection Act, which penalizes killing, or trying to kill protected animals or owning their remains. Anyone caught breaking this law may be fined THB40,000 and get locked up for as many as four year, reported Khaosod English.
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