BANGKOK TIGER TRACKER
A suspected illegal wildlife trade kingpin was arrested in Bangkok’s Ram Intra area yesterday Feb. 7 after he refused to turn himself in for questioning about an exotic wildlife slaughterhouse.
Thananuwat Boonperm aka Ood Bangkrauy was charged with illegal wildlife possession, TANN reported. Officers from the Natural Resources and Environmental Crime Suppression Division Police arrested him on Ram Intra Soi 129.
The unit’s commander, Police Colonel Norasak Hemniti, said he believes the suspect is involved in a wildlife smuggling ring from Mae Sot District in Tak Province.
Earlier this week, police from the same division raided a house in Bangkok’s Min Buri District and found 400kg of butchered tiger meat as well as carcasses of zebras, an elephant, crocodiles, and wild buffalo. They suspect the tiger meat may have come from a zoo in Chonburi.
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Bangkok Tiger Tracker is Coconuts Bangkok’s regular round up of tiger-related news from Thailand and around the continent. Asia’s biggest cat is one of the most ecologically and culturally important animals in the world, but is facing extinction due to poaching and loss of habitat. It is estimated that there are only about 3,200 tigers remaining in the wild today in Asia, down from nearly 100,000 a century ago.
