Boxing gloves raised, two orangutans enter a ring at a Thai zoo, a spectacle that fascinates locals and foreigners alike, but sits increasingly at odds in a nation slowly embracing animal welfare.
Every morning, hundreds of tourists visit Safari World, a large zoo on the outskirts of Bangkok, to see apes perform a show parodying human behavior.
Female orangutans, decked in bikini tops and miniskirts, pretend to seduce monkey musicians as rowdy ape fans drink beer and throw cans at the two orangutans play-fighting.
Photo: AFP
“It is one of the funniest things I have ever seen,” said Aisha, a 23-year-old tourist from Sri Lanka.
Others are less enthusiastic.
“I do not like it at all,” said Erwin Newton, 30, from the US. “I do not understand. What is interesting in making animals behave in this violent, dirty way?”
To outsiders, Thailand’s treatment of animals can appear confusingly contradictory.
In this deeply Buddhist nation it is not unusual to see pampered pooches pushed around in prams or entire temples providing sanctuary to stray cats and dogs.
Yet dogs might also be on a dinner table in the northeast of Thailand, while the kingdom — a renowned animal-trafficking hub — retains its long tradition of blood sports, such as cock and bull fighting.
However, there are signs that public attitudes are changing. The first-ever animal welfare law was adopted late last year after years of campaigning by increasingly vocal animal rights groups.
The law now bans “torture and cruelty toward animals” with exemptions for activities that are part of the nation’s traditions.
The nation’s animal-fighting industry is also trying to make itself more humane. Unlike in the Philippines, where cocks can be seen fighting with blades attached to their feet, Thailand’s birds now usually spar with their talons wrapped in fabric.
The cocks are judged on their fighting prowess, not their ability to kill their opponent, an event that is much rarer due to recent changes.
Bull-versus-bull fights in Thailand, especially popular in the south, also rarely lead to deaths, unlike the man-versus-beast version still thriving in Spain — and the bulls themselves are treated with celebrity status.
“Even in animal fights, there must be rules,” said Chaichan Laohasiripanya, secretary-general of the Thai Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
“They must consider the health of the animal, the length of the fight,” she said.
Suddan Wisudthiluck, an anthropologist at Bangkok’s Thammasat University, says the shift toward making the nation’s traditions more animal-friendly stems in part from people keeping pets, especially in the cities.
“Animals are more and more seen as friends or family members,” Wisudthiluck said.
All across Bangkok and other urban centers, salons, hospitals and clothes shops for pets are almost as ubiquitous as 7-Eleven shops and street food hawkers.
Acts of cruelty toward animals — especially dogs — often receive widespread publicity. In July, the arrest of a village headman who killed his neighbor’s pet dog after an argument was front-page news in Thai media for days.
Edwin Wiek, a campaigner from Wildlife Friends of Thailand, said Thailand’s animal rights journey has been typified by two steps forward, one step backward with law enforcement his “biggest concern.”
Some people “just care about money and do not hesitate to use [animals] to make some, but I think most Thai people love their animals,” Wiek told reporters.
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