Sri Racha Tiger Zoo

After spending three nights in Bangkok we took a two and a half hour taxi ride to Pattaya. On the way we stopped at Sri Racha Tiger Zoo in Chonburi. Sri Racha holds alot of different animals and activites, including pig racing(?), shooting, Tigers, crocodiles and Elephants. When we first arrived we used a pellet gun to shoot cages which held meat, if you hit the target the tigers got food.

 

After this we took the oppurtunity to have our picture taken with a tiger cub. The tiger was literally dragged out of the tiny cage it was being held in and a bottle of milk was kept in its mouth to keep it calm. 

After this picture the whole place just didnt make any sense to me. We went to watch a tiger show afterwards and the tigers looked so terrified. They are obviously raised with such violence to show them that the humans are in charge that if they were to put a foot out of line they would be treated inhumanely. I left after 5 minutes of the show, the way this place treats animals is exploatitve and basically a disgrace. After researching this place on the internet, i found out that 53 tigers were killed due to eating contaminated chicken. If this zoo was opened in the west it would last about 5 minutes, yeah its great for tourists to be able to hold a tiger but the conditions the animals have to suffer is a travesty.

Tigers made to stand on platforms and perform tricks

The reason we went here in the first place was to see tigers being looked after, as in Thailand there are many sanctuaries which take tigers out of danger and look after them. I wouldn't be suprised if all these tigers ended up in a sanctuary in a few years time.

Soph