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Update (April 3, 2024): Samutprakan Crocodile Farm and Zoo is back in the business of exploiting animals, forcing crocodiles and others to perform pointless stunts for human entertainment.
Update (January 28, 2021): Samutprakan Crocodile Farm and Zoo has gone bankrupt but is still operating. Please take action below.
Update (August 2019): Following a global outcry, the elephant Gluay Hom was purchased from Samutprakan Crocodile Farm and Zoo by foreign donors and transferred to an elephant sanctuary in Northern Thailand. While we’re pleased that he’s now in a better place, rescuing animals from zoos by buying them is generally not a viable solution to ending animal suffering in the tourism trade. There’s no guarantee that the zoo won’t simply acquire a new animal to take the place of the one who was sold. Furthermore, such purchases don’t help all the other animals who continue to languish at the facility. Buying animals from zoos pays into an industry that sentences wild animals to a miserable life of violence and deprivation.
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In 2019, a PETA Asia video exposé of Thailand’s Samutprakan Crocodile Farm and Zoo documented handlers jabbing elephants with sharp metal spikes and forcing them to give rides and perform tricks, such as bowling, painting, and dancing. Crocodiles were also violently hit with sticks and forced to perform meaningless tricks, and tigers and primates languished on chains or in barren cages and were used by paying customers as photo props.
In 2020, the zoo forced a masked, leashed chimpanzee to ride around on a bike and spray disinfectant in a spectacle to capitalize on the coronavirus crisis.
Later that year, PETA Asia released more video footage showing the deteriorating conditions at the zoo, including an extremely distressed bear who had worn the paint off a wall in his pen from repeatedly pushing himself against it. Elephants and crocodiles were still being forced to perform pointless stunts for visitors.
Abused and Stabbed for Cheap Tricks
Eyewitnesses documented that workers stabbed elephants with sharp metal implements to make them dance, bowl, and perform other uncomfortable and confusing tricks. By paying to see these acts, tourists supported the abuse.
Elephants were found with bleeding wounds on their sensitive temples and ears. One elephant had a large crack in his toenail.
Chained to a Life of Suffering
Eyewitnesses found that the elephants were kept on concrete flooring, which can cause them to develop foot and joint problems, and their legs were tethered with short metal chains.
Elephants are highly social animals who spend their time roaming lush forests, swimming, browsing on leaves and bark, and socializing with their families. At this facility, they were chained at a distance from one another under a concrete stadium and denied all semblance of a natural life. They constantly swayed from side to side, which is a sign of extreme mental distress.
Severe Abuse and Depression
Other animals were also treated cruelly in order to entertain tourists. Workers beat crocodiles with bamboo sticks during shows, and a wailing tiger was harassed into allowing tourists to pose with him for photos.
Eyewitnesses found that other animals, including a young chimpanzee and a young orangutan, appeared frustrated and listless. They were being held captive, chained in small cages for photo ops with tourists, which benefited the zoo.
Animals Deserve Better
Elephants are highly social animals who form strong, lasting bonds with their family members. They work together to solve problems and rely on the wisdom, judgment, and experience of their eldest relatives. In their natural homes, they spend their days socializing, swimming, exploring, and playing.
In nature, they don't carry people on their backs or perform uncomfortable and confusing tricks. The deprivation, stress, lack of exercise, and inadequate facilities that elephants endure in captivity can cause them to develop abnormal behavior—such as rocking and swaying—never seen in the wild. Elephants in captivity have high rates of painful and chronic health problems, such as nail cracks, abscesses, obesity, and arthritis, and they often die young.
Crocodiles, tigers, and primates at Samutprakan Crocodile Farm and Zoo are also abused for the benefit of tourists, and their needs are often neglected.
You Can Help Them
PETA Asia has submitted its findings to the Thai police. The best thing that you can do to help elephants and other animals exploited for tourism is to make compassionate travel decisions by never patronizing businesses that exploit wild animals or allow direct contact between humans and animals—even facilities that claim to be sanctuaries.
Thanks to thousands of people like you who took action, Trip.com and Ctrip have made the compassionate decision to stop selling tickets to Samutprakan Crocodile Farm and Zoo, but HopeTrip has ignored PETA's requests to remove the exhibit from its itineraries. Please urge the company to stop promoting cruelty to animals immediately.
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