Huge setback for orangutans smuggled to Thailand

[Guest guest]

PRESS RELEASE

 

 

 

For immediate release

 

 

 

September 9th, 2004

 

 

 

Thai Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plants

 

 

will not charge Safariworld on illegally obtained

Orang Utans.

 

 

 

With only three more weeks to go before the

international CITES meeting hosted in Bangkok, the General of the Department of National Parks,

Wildlife and Plants has decided not to press charges

against the owners of Safariworld involving the 115

allegedly illegally obtained orang utans by this zoo,

despite a mass of evidence provided by the Royal Thai

Forestry Police Department. According to the Director

General of the DNP, Somchai Pienstaporn, there is no

evidence of any wrongdoing by Safariworld Zoo on

counts of either the import of protected wild animals

or concealing, purchasing and holding of protected

wild animals.

 

 

 

The latest statement of the DNP chief goes directly

against earlier remarks made by his assistant,

Thailand’s’ CITES chief Dr. Schwann Tunhikorn, early

last month. Dr. Tunhikorn was quoted as saying that

the Department of National parks was organizing the

confiscation of the apes and that they were to be

relocated at official wildlife breeding centers of the

authorities within a week from the time of this

declaration.

 

 

 

The reluctance to press charges in this matter is a

huge setback in the fight against the illegal wildlife

trade and will have serious consequences for the

future success of wildlife conservation and the fate

of the 115 victimized orangutans. It seems the only

feasible way to still bring this case to justice is if

Police General Swake Pinsinchai, commander of Forestry

Police, orders his department to press charges

directly against Safariworld; an eventuality never

earlier witnessed, but a theoretical possibility.

 

 

=====

Michelle Desilets

BOS UK

www.savetheorangutan.org.uk

www.savetheorangutan.info

" Primates Helping Primates "

 

Please sign our petition to rescue over 100 smuggled orangutans in Thailand:

http://www.thePetitionSite.com/takeaction/822035733

 

 

 

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