Phuket’s Tiger Kingdom is open again a week after a tourist was mauled there.
Operations at the tiger petting zoo, where visitors can pay to touch and pose for photographs with the wild animals, appeared unchanged after shuttering for two days The Telegraph reports, despite an attack on a 49-year-old Australian man.
Animal rights activists with PETA said such facilities can never be safe.
“Tiger Kingdom – which has long been the subject of intense scrutiny for its treatment of the animals imprisoned within its walls – gives people the warped idea that these animals are little more than cuddly kitties who can be used and abused for our entertainment,” the PETA statement read.
Captivity itself is a cause for violence for the animals, who belong in the wild – not a cage.
“But captivity does not extinguish all the genetic drives that tigers are meant to follow,” it said. “Attacks by captive big cats on people – which occur with staggering regularity – illustrate the profound level of stress, anxiety and agitation these animals experience every day of their lives.”
Thailand’s tiger petting zoos, some of which purport to be temples where the tigers help conservation efforts, have been accused of abusing, drugging and even trafficking the animals in the name of profit.
Related:
Australian tourist describes attack by captive tiger (VIDEO)
Phuket News: Australian tourist mauled at ‘Tiger Kingdom Phuket’
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