Boycott demanded as orangutans put in the ring for Thai boxing bouts

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Asia Pacific News

A kickboxing Orangutan in Thailand

 

Time is GMT + 8 hours

Posted: 29 July 2004 1543 hrs

 

Boycott demanded as orangutans put in the ring for Thai boxing bouts

 

BANGKOK: An international animal rights group has called on Thailand to ban

controversial kickboxing fights between endangered orangutans held daily at

a Bangkok wildlife park.

 

The orangutans, wearing boxing gloves and garish Thai shorts, are put in a

ring and encouraged to fight their opponents using fists, knees, elbows and

feet.

 

The operators of the Safari World animal park say the fights -- which start

with the Rocky movie theme and include chimpanzees wearing bikinis carrying

cards with the bout number -- are choreographed and that no animal is

harmed.

 

But animal rights groups said the apes were being exploited for easy profits

and they were destined for a short and miserable existence after their days

in the ring were over.

 

" It's outrageous. There's no question of it being justifiable in any sort of

way, " said Cyril Rosen, a board member of the International Primate

Protection League.

 

" Most young animals are very flexible and they do what they are told, it's

what happens to them afterwards. Their eventual fate is an early death, " he

told AFP.

 

Rosen said that such treatment of the endangered orangutans could have a

long-term effect on the species' survival and called for a tourist boycott

of the park.

 

If orangutans are deprived of their long upbringing, they lose their

maternal instincts, which in turn hits their chances of breeding, he said.

 

" They are doing no good to the animals, no good to the species and making a

mockery of the animal, " he said.

 

After watching a fight Wednesday with some 400 Thai primary schoolchildren,

one spectator from California said he would not have brought his three

children to the show if he knew it was going to be an animal brawl.

 

" It was all about hitting and violence and as the audience was mostly very

young children it was very inappropriate, " said the tourist, who gave his

name only as Nick.

 

" It was basically about teaching the animals and the children watching to

hit one another, " he said.

 

Not everyone was concerned. The Thai audience cheered enthusiastically as

two orangutans named Sum Luck and Num Singh pummeled each other and a young

British couple described it as " harmless fun " .

 

" If we were doing a cruel show we do not have to let anyone tell us. We

would cancel it ourselves, " Safari World managing director Pin Kewkacha told

AFP.

 

" This show has been there for 20 years without anyone complaining about it

because it is merely an action show, " he added.

 

But Thai animals rights groups say they have contacted Safari World about

the orangutan fights many times in the past.

 

" We have tried to talk for so many years, to try to stop this but they won't

stop because it is good for business and not illegal, " said Roger Lohanan

from the group, Thai Solidarity for Protection of Animals.

 

" There is not an animal cruelty law in Thailand covering this sort of

thing, " he added.

 

Orangutans are native to Indonesia and Malaysia but hunting and loss of

habitat has seen their numbers tumble to fewer than 20,000, according to the

Orangutan Foundation.

 

The demands are growing for an end to the animal brawling, with Taiwanese

animal activists also calling on tourists to boycott the safari park.

 

Taiwan's Ping Tong Technology University Wild Animal Protection Centre

called for the boycott after its director saw the orangutan fights while in

Thailand, according to the Bangkok Post.

 

Indonesia also criticised Safari World and Thailand and is demanding the

return of at least 100 allegedly smuggled orangutans discovered during a

raid by Thai wildlife officials on the park last year.

 

The government was set to fast-track DNA testing of the apes to check their

origin after stone-walling on previous demands by Indonesia, according to

reports.