News Forum - Free zoo entry for children in Thailand for Queen Suthida’s birthday

[Thaiger]

Zoos across Thailand are offering free admission for children under 12 years old today in celebration of Her Majesty Queen Suthida’s birthday. This initiative, announced by the director of the Zoological Park Organisation of Thailand (ZPO), Attapon Srihayrun, will include several prominent zoos, such as Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Chon Buri, Chiang Mai Zoo, … …

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[Pinetree]

Good move 

[Ramanathan.P]

Well, this is a good initiative, However it would be very nice if the opportunity is provided for those children who are staying away from big cities and who don't have the facility to visit zoo in their childhood. They could arrange proper free transport for those children to visit the nearest zoo. That would make those kids really happy as a chance of their life time. 

[WilliamG]

1 hour ago, Ramanathan.P said:

That would make those kids really happy as a chance of their life time. 

To see poor animals chained up in bad conditions.

[LeReynard]

I have doubts about the ethics of zoos, but I saw no mistreatment in any large Thai zoo. All animals appeared psychologically normal.

[Marc26]

1 hour ago, LeReynard said:

I have doubts about the ethics of zoos, but I saw no mistreatment in any large Thai zoo. All animals appeared psychologically normal.

I don't know if Phuket Zoo would be categorized as a big zoo, likely not

 

But back in the day you could take pics with the Tigers, who were obviously drugged

[LeReynard]

15 minutes ago, Marc26 said:

I don't know if Phuket Zoo would be categorized as a big zoo, likely not

But back in the day you could take pics with the Tigers, who were obviously drugged

I never went (Phuket Zoo was closed in 2020) but the collection was 12 acres. In Britain I would say a 30+ acre zoo is a large one, or collections like London would be small. Small zoos in Britain are under 10 acres, I should say.

For a more appropriate Thai context, Chang Mai zoo is 200 acres, and the beloved Dusit was 60 acres.

I don't know much about Phuket Zoo, or it's controversies, but it did not have accreditation from SEAZA.

[Marc26]

58 minutes ago, LeReynard said:

I never went (Phuket Zoo was closed in 2020) but the collection was 12 acres. In Britain I would say a 30+ acre zoo is a large one, or collections like London would be small. Small zoos in Britain are under 10 acres, I should say.

For a more appropriate Thai context, Chang Mai zoo is 200 acres, and the beloved Dusit was 60 acres.

I don't know much about Phuket Zoo, or it's controversies, but it did not have accreditation from SEAZA.

Yeah I didn't think it was on par with CM and others 

 

And Phuket can be a shady place in general (and we love Phuket)

 

I wouldn't take a picture with the clearly drugged Tiger 

 

 

But after the tsunami I went to the zoo

And there was basically an open pen with 3 tiger cubs

 

Now probably not the most ethical thing but I was able to sit and play with those tiger cubs alone for about 20 mins

 

It was simply amazing even though I probably wasn't helping the matter as a whole

[LeReynard]

3 hours ago, Marc26 said:

Yeah I didn't think it was on par with CM and others 

And Phuket can be a shady place in general (and we love Phuket)

I wouldn't take a picture with the clearly drugged Tiger 

But after the tsunami I went to the zoo

And there was basically an open pen with 3 tiger cubs

Now probably not the most ethical thing but I was able to sit and play with those tiger cubs alone for about 20 mins

It was simply amazing even though I probably wasn't helping the matter as a whole

Tiger cubs are kittens. Kittens need not be drugged to engage with affectionate humans, whats more 'zoo tigers' arguably show a domestication syndrome, after breeding for generations. This is why the old tiger stock was phased out from European zoos: mixed genetic origin and history of breeding for calmness, not conservation of a wild phenotype.

[Marc26]

2 hours ago, LeReynard said:

Tiger cubs are kittens. Kittens need not be drugged to engage with affectionate humans, whats more 'zoo tigers' arguably show a domestication syndrome, after breeding for generations. This is why the old tiger stock was phased out from European zoos: mixed genetic origin and history of breeding for calmness, not conservation of a wild phenotype.

No I wasn't inferring that the tiger cubs were drugged

 

Just that I felt bad they were in the zoo to begin with 

 

I know there are good zoos, but it's really hard to do anything animal related in Thailand without worrying about how ethical it is....

 

I was in Koh Chang last month 

And I am very cognizant that elephants can be treated very badly in Thailand so I steer clear of anything elephant related 

 

But I was driving down the road and there were 3 huge elephants on the side of the road 

 

I just wanted to stop and look at them up close

But you could buy a basket of food for 50 baht

 

I figured feeding them can't hurt

 

Then so many people kept pulling up and I was then worried they might be overfed for $$$

 

But then I went and looked online and they actually need to eat an enormous amount of food each day 

[Khunmark]

Chiang Mai zoo has introduced a world first concept of engagement with animals. The conventional model of humans visiting the animals has been flipped on its head. Now the animals visit you.