‘People buy a lion and can’t handle it’: inside the farms breeding cubs for TikTok and Instagram likes | Illegal wildlife trade
CThe hambagne glasses collide at the exclusive Bangkok party, where the guests laugh at designers’ clothes and laugh. They take turns to demonstrate with a cat, and they pass through it from one to one. But as the camera stabilizes, it becomes clear that this is not a cat cat – it’s a lion cub. A woman, in a red cocktail dress, raises the animal on her face and explodes a kiss on the camera, a cup of wine balanced in her other hand.
Such clips are immersed Instagram and Tiktok, as they offer a glimpse of the captive captive lion trade in Thailand. According to a new report before Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand and Oxford Wildlife Trade Group, the number of lions in captivity has doubled more than three times since 2018 – a trend that partially nourishes the popularity of strange pets between the rich elite in the country. The growing network of Assad’s farms for this demand is increasing – many of them run it into amateurs with a few experience in wildlife care.
Assad breeders Batamudi Chanelethak, who sits on the nursery floor, sits, where he crawls three cubs-only weeks-crawls on her lap, and hit her with closed eyes as if she was trying to absorb. The smell of the room from the formula.
“We were very experienced when we started,” she says, remember how five of the first six cubs died within days. So far, it has sold more than 80 blacks throughout the country.
She says that some buyers Thai and some of them are foreigners Thailand Start from $ 5,000 (3,700 pounds), with white cubs of up to $ 15,000. Preserving the lion is expensive, and requires reinforced containers and up to 10 kg of fresh meat per day.
Most buyers want their black as possible. While there are clients who buy directly from the farms, breeders also work with agents who promote cubs force on social media – not only for sale, but also to rent them to take pictures and parties.
Problems begin as soon as animal grows. “Some people buy a lion and then cannot deal with it,” says Batamudi. “They ask us to buy it.”
The report indicates that the “Buy-Back” system has become essential to the farm business model, as it provides the experience of having a lion without a long-term commitment. The oldest black can be used for education or transferred to places similar to the zoo, making a profit at each stage of life.
Regular transportation between facilities makes it difficult to track individual lions, and contribute to the gap between official records and actual numbers. The report determines at least 444 blacks in captivity – an increase of 138 in 2018, and more than 342 registered in the Ministry of National Gardens in Thailand, wildlife and plants save. The researchers say that the real number may be much higher, as many sales and education activities are not registered.
Despite the trade control attempts, a number of gaps allowed prosperity. In 2019, the government submitted the law of animal conservation and animal protection to regulate the ownership of non -original species that are included such as lions, which was previously a slight protection. According to the report, the law had the unintended influence of strengthening trade in lions by creating a legal path with large gaps in supervision. Although Assad’s ownership requires a license, education does not – anyone who owns Lions can be born. Cubs do not need registration until they are 60 days old, and hybrid types such as LIGERS are completely excluded from the law. The result is a prosperous industry, as trade in the lion of Assad alone was estimated at more than one million dollars (740,000 pounds) per year.
Tajeesak AnansiriwattanaAnd he is a Bangkok veterinarian whose customers know the name of the doctor, sitting in his office in a clinic on the outskirts of the city. “I do not agree with people who keep black as pets,” he says. Over the past five years, it has been dealt with more than 25 black owned by private ownership. “Our climate is very wet for them. Skin infections are common,” he says, adding that malnutrition is widespread. “People feed them with chicken, but they need organs like the liver and intestine to survive.” Although the owners are required to build containers measuring at least 3 meters in 3 meters, less than half of the families visited the doctor in these standards.
-
Adult animals, including valuable white lions, and cubs in the reproductive farm. Photos: Anna Norman Permodes
“There are serious challenges in animal care,” he says. Tom Taylor, Head of Operations at Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand And the co -author of the report. “Some of these facilities keep the lions in narrow, arid, sunlight packages, on the concrete substrate, and weak -quality food, which leads to a life of misery.” To meet the demand, the breeders often separate the cubs early to force mothers to return to Ostrus. Relative marriage is common, especially with white and hybrid lions, which are more valuable.
Black, whose home is not in Thailand, is listed as being at risk by IUCN. While the country’s captive population provides little benefit to conservation, Taylor warns that it has become a fertile ground for trafficking, which strengthens the demand that endangers wild lions. “We have received reliable reports from merchants that indicate that the lions in Thailand are illegally exported, as live animals and death of their bodies,” he says, adding that Assad’s parts may fill the gap in the market that the tiger -bound trading is tightly left.
Public safety is also a great concern, as it appears in news reports that lions that run away from private packages or are transferred to public places. In 2024, a viral video of a man driving a pets caused a convertible car in widespread anxiety. In response, the Director General of the Ministry of National Gardens said that the government is studying changes in the law, including the restrictions imposed on Assad’s ownership.
The report calls for an urgent ban on private ownership and commercial reproduction, the most stringent licensing requirements, Assad cafes and photo opportunities – on the pretext that these practices enhance the settlement of foreign pets. “Many people are attracted to the idea of having a lion without fully understanding the moral, financial and safety effects,” says Taylor, adding that similar trends appear with other non -original species, including lemons with a circular tail and red panda. “We hope this report will encourage the audience to think about where these animals come from, the conditions that are kept, and what happens when they grow dramatically and dangerously in dealing with it.”
Find more Covering the era of extinction hereHe followed the correspondence of biological diversity Vepi Weston and Patrick Greenfield In the Guardian app for more nature coverage
