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Wildlife campaigners in Thailand fear that the owners of ‘illegal’ pets
are slaughtering their animals to avoid complying with a new law designed
to protect endangered species. ‘The problem of owners killing their animals
rather than registering them or handing them over is a real possibility
but it is very difficult to monitor,’ says Pat Corrigan of Wildlife Fund
Thailand.

The campaigners are also concerned that the hundreds of animals seized
during police raids around the country are being kept in poor conditions.
The Thai authorities have not provided holding centres equipped to take
animals such as tigers, Asiatic black bears, crocodiles, simbar, barking
deer and many species of birds.

The 1992 Wildlife Conservation Law brings Thai legislation into step
with the provisions of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered
Species of Wild Flora and Fauna which the country signed in 1984. The law
was drafted last year after an international campaign co-ordinated by the
World Wide Fund for Nature highlighted Thailand’s key role in the trade
in endangered specIes.

‘The 1992 law does have many good elements but it was rushed through
parliament and there are problems,’ says Corrigan. ‘The temporary facilities
for keeping the animals are very poor but they cannot be reintroduced to
the wild because animals raised by humans lack basic survival skills and
they are often infected with diseases you don’t find among wild populations.’