Tiger Temple in the news again
Nele
Veteran
It seems that now ALL tigers are being removed from the temple grounds. I hope they can relocate them quickly to a more humane living space. From the green planet article:
_Following a series of dramatic events, Thailand’s Department of National Parks (DNP) director- general, Nipon Chotiban, has ordered all tigers to be removed from the Tiger Temple by the end of April. This is great news for wildlife conservationists and animal rights activists who have been fighting for over 15 years to close the facility down after numerous reports of abuse and illegal wildlife trading.
While there has been plenty of Internet outrage, with many questioning the moral ethics of these “religious leaders” – the fact remains that there has been a steady and profitable demand from tourists to pay up to $180 for the coveted tiger selfie. A narcissistic desire to be part of a bizarre and cruel sideshow that has been unwittingly fueled by the popular press and influential celebrities._
Comments
Did I miss it, or did the article fail to mention what will happen to the tigers?
Do NOT trust the Thai authorities.
This article has more information on the (supposed) plans for the tigers. Apparently in the past few weeks, they trafficked a handful of their tigers to other countries.
http://news.thaivisa.com/thaivisa-news/park-officials-will-remove-all-146-tigers-from-famous-tiger-temple/48275/
What do you do with 146 tigers? For that matter, how did they get that many? People weren't catching them in the wild and bringing them in. They had to be breeding them in a massive effort to keep cute cubs available for the tourists to hold.
Anyway, they certainly need good homes, but while they're severely endangered in the wild, zoos have about all they can handle already. I wonder how many of these will end up in China, in their black market for folk remedies that include tiger ingredients?
Indeed. That is an awful lot of tigers to find homes for. I doubt we'll ever know, since it's up to the Thai government to take care of them now.
Isn't it weird how all the best animals, live in the worst places for exploitation? Why aren't elephants natives of Greenland, for example? Or tigers part of the natural fauna of Scotland?
They'd be protected better, then...!
What the heck is it with animals being native of the very country intent on destroying them?
I wonder that too, sometimes! Most of the tropic and subtropic areas in the world are among the very poorest, so they feel the need to exploit animals to make some progress. I mean on individual levels, not government. Much of the time the governments hoard resources and money and the people suffer. Unfortunate, as so many of those places are a boon for tourism, yet the people who live there suffer greatly with access to basic needs, or just access to a non-oppressive government. I asked my sister about it a while back (she's a history nut) and she said it has a lot to do with the colonization that many of those countries suffered so long ago. Then when they started to earn their freedom, they were basically left to climb themselves out of a huge mess. But I imagine that is part of the reason the governments are so oppressive and strict (despite it being contradictory) because of their history of being taken over and exploited by European (mostly) countries in the past.
Also, as I am reading now, it sounds like despite their biodiversity, they are often poor areas to farm. So much disease and so many pests make those areas very difficult to develop until more recently (and even now, the disease aspect is still a challenge...who wants to do the work to develop farmland and other things in countries where Malaria is so common (just to name one).
As a result of lack of opportunity and development, people take opportunities where they can get them. They struggle just to survive every day, so compassion for animals isn't something they have had the opportunity to develop. It's much higher on the scale of needs, and if you don't have access to dependable food supplies and potable water those things come first and nothing else really matters.
I read once in an interview that it's hard to get the locals to have sympathy for elephants when they bust through any and all fences in order to trample and eat their gardens they need to survive. Then the lion sneaks in and takes your goat providing milk for the baby.
Look at all the animals we wiped out in Europe and America because they were a nuisance. Still do. I'd like to think we learned a lesson, but as soon as wolves get anywhere near farm country, the states scream that they need to be able to hunt and kill them to protect livestock.
Our state is in a constant battle over the wolves and their rights versus ours. Except here, where we have almost all of the state's wolf population and the largest in the lower 48, it has nothing to do with protecting farm livestock. And everything to do with hunters wanting the right to kill the deer (and moose, but they are off limits for hunting right now) and not let the wolves have them. Hunters kill about 200,000 deer a year. People in cars kill another 100k or so. The wolves (there are about 2500 of them right now) kill about 20 deer each per year. So, 50,000 deer. WAY less than hunters...but the hunters aren't happy for the competition. We had a couple year of wolf hunts (sadly) but they are back on restricted list because the numbers sought by our DNR were too high and it'll take too long for packs to recover from the losses. UGH. Just disgusts me. And it's laughable that humans think they know the best way to manage populations of animals. They claim that is their goal, butreally their goal is the optimal populations of animals to make hunters happy because here, hunters (and anglers) contribute a major % of the game and fish budget of our state DNR. It's just crazy.
Sorry. Wolves are one of my major love affairs of nature. Have been since I was a little kid. Disgusts me that way people here talk about them as if they are useless.
Wolf power
http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2014/02/16/this-will-shatter-your-view-of-apex-predators-how-wolves-change-rivers/
... and now back to the Tiger Riding . . .
http://news.thaivisa.com/thaivisa-news/tiger-temple-tiger-mystery-remains-unsolved/45711/
The picture of the temple full of enlightened monks building up good karma by protecting innocent animals might be nothing but hype.
This is an earlier article that the one @karasti linked to, but it gives a lot of detail about what they expect will happen to the tigers. They will go to breeding centers, a few to zoos that have breeding programs, and some (the ones that are native species, not Bengals which most of them are) may be released into the wild.
http://news.thaivisa.com/thailand/thai-officials-brace-for-transfer-of-temple-tigers/46962/
I think this story will be followed closely - that gives me hope that the Thai authorities (while not trustworthy as some have pointed out) will follow through and keep these animals from going into a worse situation. Maybe the authorities will begin to see them as the national "treasure" that they are and move in the direction of Costa Rica (a country I may very well have to move to someday).
Someone mentioned the conflict between wolves, deer and ranchers and whatnot. Here in Colorado, it is pretty much open season on coyotes - with a small game license you can shoot them anytime you want. In the populated areas of the front range, folks with dogs and children see the coyotes as a menace, and in the less populated areas, hunters are convinced they put a big dent in the "deer fawn" population. Pretty soon there will be no top predators at all - except us of course. See 'em while you can!
Interestingly, last evening I was chatting online with a Thai friend in Thailand. I brought up the Tiger Temple story, and he was quite aware of it, and began discussing it. All went well until I brought up what will happen to the tigers and said, "I don't trust the government to do what is good for the tigers". Immediately the discussion was switched to a different topic because of a fear to saying anything negative about the government on internet chat.
We could each adopt one, though I'm not sure I could afford all the cat food and would be worried about a tiger clawing at my settee.
Imagine the cat-flap....
And the cat-litter tray....
All of Brixton. Good thinking.....
Another story about the tiger temple...weren't they supposed to lose all the tigers last month?
http://phuketwan.com/tourism/thailands-tiger-temple-abbot-icu-tiger-savages-22523/
The last I read, the Thai authorities had put a hold on the decision to remove the tigers. In other words, someone did the "Thai way of doing business" -- bribery.
I'm afraid you're right. Looks like we rejoiced too soon that the animals would start being taken care of correctly.
It's the "Thai way", as the government so often says.
One of the conditions placed on the monks is that they not profit from the tigers anymore, i.e. not charge admission to tourists. If the profit motive is taken away (doubtful, they will probably just ask for a donation), can/will the monks continue to care for the tigers? And what about the other illegal animals (hornbills and such) they were supposedly keeping there? A sad business all around.
At least they are open about it ...Buckshees is a way of life in many Asian countries not just Thailand...Well come to think of it, Western countries/politicians are not immune to a little buckshees
a little?
They do say that everything's big in Texas (even a 'little' )
There's a difference between bribery occurring occasionally and bribery (and similar behaviors) being a way of life.
Bribery is bribery however the art of concealment seems to have been almost perfected in some Western countries...It's called "wheeling and dealing"...I'm just saying that
"Let him( country) without sin cast the first stone !"
"Transparency International"