BANGKOK TIGER TRACKER:
Police in Bangkok raided a residential home in Bangkok today Feb. 6 and caught four men in the process of butchering a tiger in what was described as an exotic wildlife slaughterhouse.
Elephant, zebra, wildebeest, and lion parts were also found on the property and refrigerated meat that was probably meant for human consumption, officials said.
“We assume that the meat is from tigers because we found tiger skin and heads. From what I’ve seen, I think it’s two tigers,” Thai Nature Crime Police Commander, Police Colonel Norasak Hemnithi told the AFP.
Pol Col Norasak said that they arrested seven men and are looking for another who is believed to own an exotic meat restaurant in Bangkok which has been open for a decade. “We believe that this butchers house is mainly to provide orders for the restaurant, but those arrested said they sometimes shipped meat and stuffed animals to China,” he said.
Wildlife anti-trafficking group Freeland said that local police randomly found the slaughterhouse after spotting a man on the street in Bangkok’s Yannawa district with his hands covered in blood.
“Police escorted the man back to a residential building and discovered four others in the midst of chopping up a 400 kilogram (880 pound) male tiger,” the group said.
Freeland director Steven Galster said the group believes some of the animals were “bred in, or laundered through, private zoos in Thailand”.
Norasak said he thought the tigers might have been from the wild, but other animals could have been from private zoos.
The arrested men could face four years in jail for the illegal processing of wild and protected animals, he added.
Thailand is a hub of international wildlife smuggling and the issue has turned up in the news frequently as of late.
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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.
