Good day explorers, today I am making a post a little different, a post to discourage future travelers to take photos next to tigers.
Since 2005, the organization Care for the Wild International opened an investigation against the Tiger Temple in Kanchanaburi, Thailand, where Tigers were alleged to be sedated, physically abused, chained to the floor and woken up with water splashes to the face and forced into their pose to be photo-ready. It also was suspected to be related to Tiger trafficking, including whole adult tigers, tiger cubs, and parts like teeth, claws, and fur.
This Temple(*) opened its doors in order to save Tigers from poachers and traffickers, creating a save place for them to be rehabilitated and then released to their habitat. On the legal record, the Temple said it had 17 tigers, but in 2016 the number was found to be over 110. Breeding in captivity is mainly just for show and for profit, not very useful if the objective of the organization was to release them to the wild.
*Other ‘Temples’ are under investigation also, although none has gotten the same amount of results the one against Kanchanaburi’s Temple did.
Many tourists think they are helping support the organization with their donations so they could take care of the tigers, but it’s been proven that these Tiger-selfie tickets visitors paid were solely funding an abusive trafficking network where even the Monks were involved (3 of them were arrested while they tried to escape carrying Tiger teeth and claws).
Here is the official breakdown of allegations:
Here there’s a video of the Police raids that took place last year. (WARNING: graphic animal bodies)
Sadly, the official website of the Tiger Temple claims to be about to reopen at a different location, having acquired the permits to ‘rehabilitate’ Tigers to later release them, which is what the Tiger Temple’s original mission was. Let’s hope this time they get more control from the authorities and keep their business away from trafficking.
Isn’t always a much better option to photograph free animals in their habitat?
Thanks for reading. Be wise!
Cannot agree more, this is a Temple of lies indeed! Stay in touch!
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Reblogged this on Mabels Map and commented:
Glad TheWiseExplorer wrote about this issue, I don’t think many people are aware of the bad in what appears to be an “innocent” activity
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Reblogged this on Dream Big, Dream Often.
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Thank you!
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You are welcome!
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Great post! Believe or not, I first heard about this mistreatment on Instagram. I’ll never tap a like on a tiger selfie
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Congratulations on a Great piece. I hope many people read it, and that you can post it all over the media. Thank you.
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Thank you so much! I hope the same.
The sad part is that they are trying to reopen the ‘temple’ this year.
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Thanks for your like!
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I loved this! It makes everything a lot easier to like when you throw some photos in, and putting that video in was a great touch!
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Excellent post! I love all cats, and have been tempted to visit myself but didn’t after doing a bit of research about it. I there is a place for endangered animals in captivity, and that is in wildlife sanctuaries or in breeding programs of competent zoological gardens. There are probably thousands of cute koalas, dolphins, sloths, snakes and other animals that are kept purely to rake in money from visitors, and by not going there and publicising why we may be able to help put a stop to this. Domestic cats are for petting, big cats belong in the wild. Thank you for bringing this to people’s attention and encouraging responsible travel.
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