A pair of tiny leopard cubs discovered inside the luggage of two Indian nationals at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport on Wednesday along with a veritable menagerie of smuggled beasts have a new home thanks to the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP).
Seven animals in all, including the leopards, two pygmy marmoset monkeys, and three weasels, were found along with a trio of thus-far-unidentified bird eggs in the bags of 27-year-old Raghul Vijaya Baskar and Johnson Michael Raj, 42, as they prepared to board Thai Airways flight TH337 to Chennai, India, at about 8:30pm.
The animals were stuffed inside plastic boxes inside the men’s luggage, according to Workpoint.
Police suspect that some form of anesthesia was used to knock the animals out for the journey, a decision that has reportedly left the cubs — which have not even been weaned — very weak.
The animals remain under the close care of veterinarians. While the cubs will remain at the DNP Wildlife clinic, the other animals will be sent to a farm in Chon Buri’s Si Racha district.
Meanwhile, the two alleged smugglers face a slew of charges for possessing wildlife without protection, attempting to export wildlife without permission and other related legal violations.
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