Sending elephants to Australia is goodwill gesture: Yongyuth
Caretaker Natural Resources and Environment Minister Yongyuth Tiyapairat described on Monday the government's controversial decision to export eight young Thai elephants to Australia as "an expression of goodwill".
When asked about allegations that Bt45 million was behind the deal, Yongyuth was evasive. "It's another issue, but I don't think any official has broken the law," he said. "It's goodwill in a similar way to China [lending] two pandas to us," Yongyuth said in response to growing complaints about the deal from animal rights activists and conservationists. The activists have threatened to petition the Administrative Court over the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry's plan to send the elephants to zoos in Melbourne and Sydney. Four of the elephants were secretly flown out of the country on Sunday. Yongyuth said it was legal to export the elephants under an exchange programme that would see koalas being sent to Thailand. He said activists could fly to Australia and conduct DNA tests on the elephants if they wanted to confirm whether they were from the wild. Under Thai regulations, elephants must be captivebred to be eligible for export. "We have already checked that these elephants were born in captivity," said Yongyuth. The Nation
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