The Thai Navy arrested eight animal traffickers in possession of two tiger carcasses, both chopped in half, and 45 pangolins as they attempted to smuggle the animals across the Mekong River into Lao PDF.
“The trail of butchered Tigers winds through many countries in Southeast Asia.” – Chris R. Shepherd, TRAFFIC Southeast Asia’s Acting Director
Officers in the Thai Navy followed two cars with the grisly cargo and arrested eight people as they attempted to transfer the animals from cars into a boat for the river crossing. Two of the pangolins were already dead.
The Thai Natural Resources and Environmental Crime Suppression Division sent the tiger carcasses to the Dept. of National Parks for DNA testing to determine if they were domesticated or wild animals.
“TRAFFIC lauds the Thai authorities for carrying out these DNA tests. Determining the origin of these Tigers is crucial if authorities hope to end this tragic trade.”- Shepherd
Previous attempts to smuggle tigers across the border have been recorded, with the Thai Navy preventing smugglers from bringing six slaughtered tigers, five leopards and 275 live pangolins across the Thai-Laos border in January 2008. The tigers in that incident were also sliced in half, and the leopards were missing their organs.
In January 2009, police in Thailand seized the carcasses of four tigers in Hua Hin, all decapitated. Police believed those tigers came from Malaysia and were en route to China. In February, two tiger carcasses and a panther carcass were seized in the province of Pattani.
TRAFFIC encouraged governments in Southeastern Asian countries to work together to stem the flow of illegal animal trafficking across borders.
“Tracking down those who illegally kill and trade these Tigers and putting them behind bars is a task countries cannot accomplish their own.” – Shepherd
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Images: Mekong Waterfront Guard & Natural Resources and Environmental Crime Suppression Division (NRECD) Thailand
[Via WWF]
This is such a horrible situation.
Jeremy Cushing
So sickening. I have never been so upset as I was to see these images. Shooting the perpetrator is too kind a method to use on them.
I didn’t know pangolins were so popular on the black market.
this will end. I think that the only way is by making it legal to own endagered species, and by allowing people to farm them.
OMG that’s so cruel! Can’t believe somebody could do this
These people will be kill….not like the good old U.S.A lite sentence
this just makes me sick how could yoy say you love the planet but you hurt the planet in so many different ways i reaaly dont undertstand its all a bunch of no hearted people
To see those beautiful creatures mutilated is so sad.
hellow
i am from iran
and i was very sad too.
because in my country in Time past
have Hyrcanian tigers.(beautiful creatures)
Aren’t they hardcore against smugglers in Thailand? Don’t they execute drug smugglers? This appears to be the worst possible thing one could smuggle, from a moral standpoint, other than possibly high grade plutonium, weapons of mass destruction, or human baby parts.
Disrespectful.
I’d support the death penalty for endangered wildlife smugglers, but that won’t stop the black market and it’ll just make them desperate. Take a look at poachers in Kenya: they’d show the Bloods and the Crips a thing or three about shooting cops.
However, Kenya’s game wardens are no slouches either. They know they’re literally hunting dangerous game (poachers) so they’re packing military-style heat and equipment, too. Are tigers worth going to war over? Given that there’s only 2,000 in the wild, I’d say so.
It’s inexcusable that with our knowledge and the rule of law, we stand by and do nothing while this magnificent animal goes extinct so some knuckle-dragger in China can get a hard-on.
Come on, China! Get off your ancient, corrupt asses and enforce the ban!
Come on, Thailand! Drop the other shoe and give your enforcers license to kill!
dirty bastards
I didn’t know pangolins were so popular on the black market.
one of the tigers appears to have been pregnant during her death (check the second picture down lower right hand side of it) that made me puke a little bit in my mouth.
then again, destroying their habitat with intrusive human behaviour and standards of living can’t be helping them either.
“i am so sick of being a member of this sickening spieces!”
Well, there’s an easy way to change that…
This is an extremely terrible situation.
Jeremy Cushing
very depressing on so many levels…..
Wow, just when you think you’ve seen the lowest of the low. I would think that an appropriate punishment for these little poachers would be to put them behind bars — with a couple of healthy, hungry tigers. Then let’s see how many pieces THEY get cut into.
What exactly are the smugglers using these carcasses for?
Maybe the Thai Smugglers penis or “lower horn” now be removed for consumption’ and remove their foot for good luck. Also their remove hands for wishes. mmmm smuggler brain soup.
Well, it answers the question “What’s worse than a dead tiger?” You couldn’t even make a rug out of them. Senseless waste of a glorious animal.
This is despicable, these people should be killed.
@mike kowalchuk
why don’t you do something about it? go protest or go kill yourself
Yes, I agree. I just don’t understand how people think sometimes. Don’t they realize we are the caretakers of the earth???? But instead we pillage, rape and plunder our own home. It’s a very, very sad and sick situation.
I can not believe people could do that. I say apply the golden rule with these bastards.
Bastards
My God that makes me mad. I would love to personally put a bullet in the heads of those responsible!
http://www.privacy-center.de.tc
it realy sickens me when i see things like this it will never end that is the sad thing,it will end when there is nothing left on this planet,i am so sick of being a member of this sickening spieces!