Elephant transfer cancelled after day-long blockade
Elephants return to Mahidol University’s animal hospital in Kanchanaburi yesterday after environmentalists fought against them being shipped to Australia.
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A 25-hour blockade by wildlife activists and environmentalists in Kanchanaburi prevented eight young elephants from being sent to Australian zoos yesterday, when the plan was temporarily cancelled.
Activists from elephant foundations and other groups spent hours pleading with officials from the Zoological Park Organisation (ZPO) and Sydney's Taronga Park Zoo to unload the elephants from trucks that held them for more than a day. The pachyderms were finally taken out and returned to their pens at Mahidol University's animal hospital in Sai Yok district, where they have been quarantined for about 18 months. Suraphol Duangkhae, secretary-general of Wildlife Fund Thailand, submitted a letter to the local committee of the Convention on International Trade on Endangered Species (Cites), asking for the jumbo transfer to be halted until they are proven not to have come from the wild. A group of environmentalists started obstructing the path of the trucks on Monday evening and stayed there overnight while 100 protesters and locals formed a circle around the area. Yesterday morning, many well-known activists and people came to join them. "We didn't sleep a wink last night as we didn't want them to take the elephants until they undergo a DNA test," said Pinan Chotirosserani, head of the Kanchanaburi Conservation Group. The protesters suspect the elephants were not domesticated, as the ZPO claims. "We will continue protesting until the [Natural Resources and Environment] Ministry makes sure the elephants were born in captivity," Pinan said. The eight young elephants are part of an exchange scheme called the "Joint Cooperation in Captive Animal Management Programmes between Australia and Thailand". The beasts were scheduled to be driven to Bangkok International Airport on Monday and put on a cargo plane, waiting to take them to Cocos Island, en-route to majors zoos in Sydney and Melbourne. Caretaker Minister Yongyuth Tiyapairat said sending the elephants to Australia did not contravene Cites rules and was for the purpose of research and education - like the giant pandas imported from China at Chiang Mai Zoo. "As for the request for DNA testing, it's hard to find the DNA of their parents to compare results," he said. "There isn't a country able to conduct such DNA tests to prove that." ZPO director Sophon Dumnui said the blockade embarrassed the government, which has signed a contract with Australia to offer the animals in return for four koalas for Chiang Mai Zoo and four for the Night Safari, as well as other animals. The protest cost the Australian zoos Bt40-50 million in plane charter costs.
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