URGENT ACTION ALERT re Thai sanctuary raid

[Guest guest]

Please read this press release carefully and send a protest letter, fax, or

e-mail to the Thai Embassy in the capital city of your country requesting

that the animals confiscated from the Wildlife Rescue Fund of Thailand be

returned to the facility. Request also that the 100+ orangutans smuggled

into Thailand in recent years be confiscated and returned to Indonesia and

that all involved in the smuggling of the orangutans into Thailand be

prosecuted and imprisoned.

 

In the US the contact is (can other list members post addresses in their

countries?)

 

His Excellency H.E. Kasit Piromya

Royal Thai Embassy

1024 Wisconsin Avenue, N.W., Suite 401

Washington, D.C. 20007

Tel : (202) 944-3600

Fax : (202) 944-3611

E-mail : thai.wsn

----------------------

 

For immediate release

 

PRESS RELEASE

 

27th July 2004

 

RESCUED WILD ANIMALS ACT AS POLITICAL PAWNS FOR THAI FORESTRY AUTHORITIES?

 

The Thai Forestry Department appeared to be using wild animals as political

pawns when it raided the Wildlife Friends of Thailand rescue center in

Petchaburi on the eve of a major political meeting with high ranking

Indonesian officials.

 

The centre, which offers refuge to over 130 animals, was stormed on the

afternoon of the 27th July by over 20 Thai officials who confiscated

fourteen animals. This occurred less than 24 hours before Edwin Wiek, the

centre's founder, is due to attend a meeting between visiting Indonesian

officials and the Thai Forestry Director-General regarding the repatriation

of over 100 orangutans that are currently being illegally held in Thailand

at various places.

 

Wiek has been actively lobbying for the confiscation, repatriation, and

release back to the wild of the orangutans for over eight months and the

issue has caused increasingly large amounts of domestic press interest and

international attention. It seems that the price the authorities are

asking for this unwanted attention is the happiness and comfort of rescued

wild animals.

 

The centre has a history of working closely with the Forestry Department,

having previously returned animals to the authorities when appropriate

enclosures or breeding programmes became available. The violent and

aggressive approach taken today by the Forestry Department staff, which saw

a number of animals injured as they were captured and saw family groups

torn apart, threatens the working relationship which has been built over

the last three years since the centre was first established on temple

grounds at Kao Look Chang.

 

American, European and Australian animal lovers, who help as volunteers at

the centre, looked on in horror as animals were baited and physically

wrestled to the ground with steel cable nooses, before being stuck in tiny

cages and loaded onto the back of a truck to be taken to a holding bay.

Cages were stacked precariously on top of each other allowing monkeys to

fight through the bars, resulting in several injuries. Baby macaques, only

a few months old, were situated right next to a large sun bear who was

severely stressed and throwing himself from side to side; the babies were

obviously terrified. Several of the volunteers sat in front of the trucks

refusing to allow the animals to leave the premises before being physically

removed by the local police. Cathy Case, a professional wildlife

rehabilitator from California USA said: " In 25 years of wildlife

rehabilitation I have never seen such callous disregard for the welfare of

animals "

 

Edwin Wiek has refused to be intimidated by the authorities' show of power

and commented: " I have lived and worked in Thailand for over 15 years and

whilst I am not surprised by these tactics I am disgusted that an

international government would use animals to communicate political

messages. It only makes me more determined to not only get these animals

back for further treatment, but to repatriate the orangutans currently held

in Thailand and to go on fighting to ensure animals have a safe and healthy

refuge in Thailand in the future. "

 

Monkey World, the well respected international primate rescue centre and Dr

Willie Smits, Indonesia's leading orangutan expert, have both condemned the

authorities' actions.

 

Media contact: Amy Corrigan, Tel: + 66 (0) 11924683 E-mail:

info

Note to editors: Edwin Wiek, leading wildlife rescuer in Thailand, whose

work was featured on National Geographic Channel, CNN, Discovery and local

Thai Television. is available for comment or interview on

<edwin.wiek or +(66)9-5461398

 

American and British volunteers are available for interview / comment

 

 

Dr. Shirley McGreal, Chairwoman International Primate Protection League POB

766 Summerville SC 29484, USA Ph. 843-871-2280: Fax: 843-871-7988:

www.ippl.org

" Humans think they are smarter than dolphins because we build cars and

buildings and start wars etc...and all that dolphins do is swim in the

water, eat fish and play around. Dolphins believe that they are smarter for

exactly the same reasons. " --Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy