BANGKOK // Several unregistered tiger and leopard cubs were found in a raid on a private zoo, raising suspicions that it was part of a smuggling ring, Thai wildlife police said yesterday.
Six big cats were confiscated in the operation earlier this week - a pair of adult tigers, two tiger cubs and two leopard cubs - with the four young animals lacking official documentation, police said.
The owner of the newly built zoo, in north-eastern Chaiyaphum province, said the tiger cubs were the offspring of the older cats and promised to produce evidence of their legitimacy, Colonel Kiattipong Khawsamang, of the wildlife police, said.
"He planned to open up a private zoo through which he tried to make illegal things legal," Colonel Kiattipong said. "An in-depth investigation suggested he has links with a wildlife trafficking gang."
The anti-trafficking group Freeland said the discovery "may confirm suspicions that the owner and other individuals connected to the zoo and related facilities have been laundering tigers, leopards and other endangered species".
The group, which supported the operation, said the unnamed zoo owner featured in a recent National Geographic Television film about the 15-month investigation into animal trafficking through Thailand.
Freeland said the zoo owner was investigated after being linked to Sudjai Chanthawong, who was arrested in May and is suspected of being a kingpin in what could be the country's largest tiger trafficking ring.
Endangered species such as tigers and leopards are allowed to be owned legally in Thailand as long as they are not sold, but Freeland said the zoo permit system "contains loopholes".
The Freeland director, Steven Galster, said: "As the law stands, police have to constantly and tirelessly find ways to outwit unscrupulous traders. Based on tip-offs we have received, I am confident that if they keep looking, authorities will find more evidence and more bloodstained money."
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Four stars
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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Favourite book: You Are the Placebo – Making your mind matter, by Dr Joe Dispenza
Hobby: Running and watching Welsh rugby
Travel destination: Cyprus in the summer
Life goals: To be an aspirational and passionate University educator, enjoy life, be healthy and be the best dad possible.
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