An Activist Wildlife Hero Speaks Out

Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand. Bangkok. February 22, 2012. One of the most disgraceful and sad situations existing in Thailand is the cruel trafficking of protected wildlife, such as elephants, tigers, bears, pangolins, and monkeys. This illegal trade exists in two forms: the killing of the wildlife and the harvesting of body parts for supposed medicinal purposes, and for fertility, potency and sexual potions. Trade is worldwide and Thailand acts as a regional and international export hub. The amounts of money involved at all levels of this illegal activity, is staggering. Thankfully, there are foreign NGO’s which are dedicated to stamping out the trade and rescuing and protecting captured and tortured animals. I have attended many presentations at the FCCT, which detail the problems and outline some of the steps being taken to solve them. Unfortunately, little has been accomplished and much needs to be done.

The illegal trafficking exists only because of corruption. At many levels of the trade, the criminals are protected and enabled by bribed government officials. Dutchman Edwin Wiek, who runs a wildlife sanctuary for the Wildlife Friends Foundation of Thailand (WFFT), recently spoke out publicly about the poaching of baby wild elephants from protected areas in the national parks, and their eventual sale to elephant camps in Thailand catering to tourists. The price obtained for a trained illegal baby elephant is about $30,000-$50,000. The result of his going public was that WFFT's sanctuary was raided by armed police over a period of several days, Wiek’s wife was arrested, and many animals were seized by the police. They claimed, falsely, that Wiek was harboring illegal and undocumented animals. Just to make their point, which is to intimidate anyone from speaking out, the police also raided the elephant home run by Netherlands activist Antonette van de Water, whom I heard speak at the FCCT previously, and whose book “The Great Elephant Escape” I’ve purchased.

The police actions against Wiek are scary and show the ugly underside of corruption, which some people excuse as just another cost of doing business in Thailand. Following his oral presentation, Wiek showed a film of how baby elephants are tortured and abused in order to turn them into trained elephants who can obey commands and cater to tourists. Suffice it to say, that the bloody torture of these animals was so cruel, and the suffering so manifest, that I had to leave the FCCT before it was over. It was just too much cruelty for me to watch.

Wiek and others like him maintain that they will fight on. I hope that they do.