Si Racha Tiger Zoo is a popular tourist attraction in the South East of Thailand. Although I had read reports of the mistreatment of animals and the poor living conditions for the animals I still wanted to see the zoo for myself.
Therefore Prang and I went for an afternoon visit one sunny Sunday afternoon. Yes there was mistreatment of animals and yes the cages were small but I had never seen so many tigers in the one place. There were hundreds. At a young age the tiger cubs are taken from their mothers and feed by pigs. It’s strange to see but they say the amount of tigers at the zoo is proof the plan works.
For a little extra money visitors are allowed to have their photo taken with the animals. I have never been near or had a photo taken with a live Tiger, Orang-Utan or Crocodile before and although the eopportunities.
The zoo also have a tiger, elephant and crocodile show. All three of these animals are very smart and trainable and can put on a good show. The least trainable of the three is the crocodile. A crocodile cannot walk across a tightrope and play basketball. All the trainers were able to do was open the crocs mouth and slide across the ground till their head was in the mouth of the croc. Every time the trainer finished the trick he looked genuinely excited that he still had a head.
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