URGENT PLEA FOR RESCUED THAI WILDLIFE - The Petition Site

An open Letter From Edwin Wiek of Wildlife Friends of Thailand concerning the recent raids at WFFT’s shelter.

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A Personal letter from Edwin:

What does it take for a person to get down to animal torture?

Only a power hungry man will resort to hurting animals to get to hurt the person they are after.

Over the last two decades living in Thailand I have seen lots of great changes, people are getting wealthier while still sticking to their good spiritual and cultural beliefs, the country has a much better infrastructure and I also feel that people care more about each other and the environment than ever before. From a point of animal welfare and wildlife conservation the majority of Thai people are more aware than ever before. When I started helping as a volunteer with wildlife rescue 15 years ago things were different, a lot of people did see animals, including wildlife, merely as a possible source of food or source of income in several ways. Now so many years later however animal rights groups are jumping up everywhere in Thailand, and instead of being run by foreigners or foreign NGO�s these smaller Thai groups are extremely active in direct care of animals and the spreading of awareness. Lately the actions seen made by these smaller groups like the dog smuggling cases in the North-east, where they quickly jumped in to assist with the care of over a thousand dogs and follow up on the investigation into the dog trade, not even yet mentioning the hundreds of Thai volunteers working day and night for the thousands of dogs and cats caught by the floods in North and Central Thailand late last year!

There are however still a few bad eggs in our society these days. Some people still see the big money that can be made from the poaching, the wildlife trade and the wildlife slaughterhouses, as a forcing drive. These people are in my humble opinion the filth of society, on one line with drug dealers and human traffickers. In a strong healthy society however these people eventually get busted, get caught and will receive the penalty they deserve. In some cases the penalty might not be high enough however, something we will have to further work on.

There is also some danger however that comes from another side, the side you do not expect to have it in their mind to hurt the animals; the very people that are supposed to govern our country, our laws and in this case protect wildlife, animals in general. While these people are not able to look after every case of animal torture, complaints of inappropriate confinement or any other case that might be too small or no priority to them it is good to have NGO�s on the ground to help out. An extra force people to rescue these animals and medically treat and rehabilitate them where possible. To have these organizations help out with funds and lots of manpower is a blessing for the government agencies involved; it is assumed that they can spend their budgets and manpower on more important issues in the mean time.

The reality however is different as the officials here, in this case the Department of National Parks do not mind the NGO�s helping out as long as they are blind, deaf and dumb. You will be allowed to help, in the case of the Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand (WFFT), for a period of almost 12 years, but only if you do not speak up about the problems that Thailand�s wildlife and currently especially the wild elephants of Thailand face.

Because if you do speak up they will use all means they have, legal or illegal to get to you and try to hit you where it hurts most, in our case the wellbeing of the so many animals we have rescued and cared for, for so long now.

By raiding the WFFT on Monday with 70 officers, some of them heavily armed they already made the intention clear to us, the time given to Noi at her office of two little hours to produce evidence of ownership over 450 animals, until darkness made them want to go home, again showed no mercy. The fact that thirty armed officers then escorted Noi to the police station was to say for the least overkill from their side. But the latest action by the DEPARTMENT OF NATIONAL PARKS ordered by their superior in Bangkok on Wednesday the 15th of February is the lowest things can get. Busting in to the wildlife rescue center for the 3rd time in three days and taking away any animal that is for them convenient to catch hitting and poking the animals with sticks is a blatant disrespect for animal rights and shows no acknowledgement for what most of these animals already went through in their lives before they were rescued. Animals some sick and under medical treatment were hunted down by inexperienced DEPARTMENT OF NATIONAL PARKS staff in their enclosures to be taken to sub-standard facilities with tiny rusted cages without an animal hospital on site.

This confiscating is not necessary; the animals were already temporary handed over to our foundation to care for during the time we were to deliver additional papers on origin and ownership to the police, who is handling the case now. We had agreed in writing that we would not move anything away, and that we would care as good for them as ever without charging any costs for this care.

At the same time 17 or more wild caught elephants that have been confiscated by the DEPARTMENT OF NATIONAL PARKS over the last three weeks at two tourist camps in Kanchanaburi and one on the Island of Phuket are now still at these centers, being daily exploited for tourism, a very obvious sign of double standards of enforcement. Don�t say you are just following rules, just doing your job because if do so you failed to do so in all other cases elsewhere.

So why did the DEPARTMENT OF NATIONAL PARKS have to remove animals from the WFFT then? It is very clear to a lot of people; by speaking out on the illegal wild elephant killings and the continuous trade in zoo animals for slaughterhouses Edwin has just like Khun Lek Sangduan of Elephant Nature Park (ENP) somehow challenged the wrong people. Does the DEPARTMENT OF NATIONAL PARKS really believe that now they can tell the world that we have been arrested for illegal wildlife possession, we are not credible to give an account on the current status of poaching and wildlife trade within the country or maybe a particular department? Is it worth to protect a few bad eggs within your own group at the cost of more animal suffering, more poaching? Is the DEPARTMENT OF NATIONAL PARKS not here to just do this; protect Thailand�s National parks, wildlife and plants?

All animals at WFFT have been rescued from captive situations, we have evidence for each and every animal and it is the task of the DEPARTMENT OF NATIONAL PARKS in the first place to make sure these animals never ended up in captivity. We are just doing the dirty work, cleaning up those situations that are appalling. We move the animals from sub-standard and horrible conditions to a place with a save, clean, spacious and natural environment, giving them a chance to live the rest of their lives in some kind of decency, which is now supposed to be a crime.

The question is who is ordering the crackdown on NGO�s? Who is losing money, face or influence here? I am sure the answer to the last questions point directly at those now doing everything to discredit the WFFT and ENP, and try to hit them where it hurts the most, by hurting THE ANIMALS!
URGENT PLEA FOR THE SAFE AND IMMEDIATE RETURN OF ALL CONFISCATED ANIMALS BACK TO WFFTSource: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/2/urgent-plea-for-rescued-thai-wildlife/

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Established in 2003 in Phuket, Thailand, Soi Dog is Southeast Asia's largest organisation helping stray animals. The Gill Dalley sanctuary in Phuket is home to over 1,600 animals. Soi Dog also has a treatment facility in Bangkok and responds to crisis situations throughout Thailand. The organisation is dedicated to implementing effective, sustainable solutions that reduce the suffering of dogs and cats in Asia, runs entirely on donations and works efficiently so all donations are used to help animals as effectively as possible.

The foundation is a registered not-for-profit organisation in Thailand, the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Switzerland, France and Holland. It has a maximum 4-star rating with Charity Navigator, the largest and most-utilised independent non-profit evaluator in the United States, a platinum seal of transparency from Candid, the world’s largest source of non-profit information, a Top Rated award from Greatnonprofits and the Travelers’ Choice award from Tripadvisor.

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