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Wednesday, 07 June 2006 |
Animal activists blocked a convey transporting eight Thai elephants en route to Australia this week. About 100 animal rights activists, mostly women and children, lay on the road in front of the eight trucks delivering the elephants to Bangkok's Don Muang Airport to catch a charter flight to Sydney that was scheduled to leave Monday.
Australia's Melbourne Zoo and Taronga Zoo in Sydney are importing the pachyderms in exchange for koalas, kangaroos and other native Australian marsupials to be sent to Thailand.
Soraida Salwala, secretary-general of the Asian Elephant Foundation said Taronga Zoo wanted to establish the largest elephant breeding centre in the world. 'They are stealing Thailand's nationals symbol and in the future they will be using the centre to steal tourists away from Thailand,' said the famous animal activist.
The demonstrators' impasse forced zoo officials to call off the operation costing the importing zoos a reported half a million dollars.
Australian federal environment minister Ian Campbell asked Thai authorities to intervene in the blockade. "These people who say they care for the welfare of animals have in fact disturbed the animals. They've climbed up onto the back of the truck, their activities have seen the elephants standing in cages on the back of the trucks in the sun for many hours." Campbell told ABC news.
After failing to diffuse the impasse, Thai authorities returned the elephants to Mahidol University's wildlife hospital in Kanchanaburi province.
While the sale of wild elephants is illegal in Thailand, trade in tame pachyderms, or "draught" animals, is allowed.
Thailand is home to one of the largest populations of elephants in the world with about 3,000 domesticated elephants and 1,600 in the wild.
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