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A slow-moving loris being offered for photos in Patong's Soi Bangla

Tourist Trap Touts Still Quick on Their Feet

Sunday, August 26, 2012
PHUKET: Enforcement of the law that forbids people keeping protected animals as pets is not coming fast enough for the slow-moving lorises of Patong.

One of the cutest creatures on the planet, perhaps only rivalled by the panda and the koala, at least two slow-moving lorises remain captive and abused by fast-moving touts in Soi Bangla, Patong's walking street.

Phuketwan found this week that the two primates were being offered by their handlers to tourists for ''cute photo souvenirs''.

Crackdowns and action against people mistreating the lorises appear to last as long as the closing of Patong bars on time.

Some tourists still find being photographed with an abused wild creature an appealing proposition. Most visitors walk past quickly, understanding the abuse that often comes with keeping wild, protected animals as pets.

According to International Animal Rescue, lorises in captivity often have their teeth clipped painfully.

The huge brown eyes and soft fur disguise the fact that ''the slow loris bite can cause swelling, fever and pain and can be deadly for humans who suffer allergic reactions and anaphylactic shock.

''Their teeth are often cut off with nail clippers to protect the handler from the loris's toxic bite.

''This painful mutilation causes terrible infections, often leading to a slow and painful death.''

Comments

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you can see them every night... and you wonder why the police don't do anything..

Posted by peter on August 26, 2012 09:13

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Are not 2, are 4! I took pics in Bangla secretely to show to police about one week ago!!!

Posted by dave on August 26, 2012 10:07

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you can see them every night... and you wonder why the police don't do anything..

Posted by peter

I don't know how true this is Peter..but someone had mentioned to me this past week that the reason no law enforcement takes place is because the touts pay "tea money"..about 1000 baht per night to be allowed to do their thing....take it for what it's worth.

Posted by sky on August 26, 2012 10:19

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Friday night, I counted 7 and I didn't walk the full length of soi bangla, also some touts touting ping pong shows, which as we know, authorities say don't exist.

Posted by dbate_me on August 26, 2012 10:42

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"because the touts pay "tea money"..about 1000 baht per night"

No way!! - I honestly don't believe that our royal police force would accept a bribe!

Our ethical Police serves the public, enforces laws, protect our laws, and support all people in trouble equally. Our police are not into doing 'corrupt business' as far as I know.

-or was it just a dream i had?-

Posted by Mr. K on August 26, 2012 10:44

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Now Mr. K...no where did I mention the Police ...however I guess it's normal to "assume" it may be flowing in that direction...regardless, does it surprise you?

Posted by sky on August 26, 2012 14:38

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Should be easy to stop this. Check the CCTV cameras to identify the suspects.

Posted by Soupdragon on August 26, 2012 14:46

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Mr,K !!!
Welcome to Thaland !!!

Posted by jorgen48 on August 26, 2012 16:43

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My wife keeps saying to me this is Thailand nowadays but honestly it wasn't always this way.

Posted by Scunner on August 26, 2012 17:49

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"Should be easy to stop this. Check the CCTV cameras to identify the suspects.
"

are those cameras actually connected to anything ?

Posted by mikey on August 26, 2012 22:50

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Perhaps one should ask the mayor why this continues. One can also ask the provincial wildlife authorities why this is continues. The local police commander whould be asked as well. However, one should also be asking the Thais using these creatures why they do it. No one ever asks the questions. If you don't aks, you will not know.

Posted by Ryan on August 27, 2012 00:37

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this is fighting against windmills... They are there every night. They even run away from us volunteers, but if the local police does not back us up, there is nothing we can do. Actually we could just confiscate the animal and bring it to the police station, but I think the next day its just back on the "street" and we become the bad guys...

Posted by Mr. S on August 27, 2012 20:32

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Email address for this sort of thing is: forest@royalthaipolice.go.th.

Please do all you can to stop this horrible abuse of endangered animals and I include that eagle at the Kata Viewpoint in that description.

Posted by Arthur on August 28, 2012 07:55

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BBC TV did not help with their feature program yesterday showing a young Chinese boy being photographed on the beach with a gibbon dressed as a human.

Posted by Logic on August 28, 2012 23:47

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I saw a few last night...
People, please tell your friends who come over to Phuket for holidays not to support wild animal abuse in Patong and STOP taking pictures of these poor creatures!

Posted by Calipso on September 27, 2012 09:35

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We have been asking questions, made official complaints but we are still fighting windmills... See here a latest update on our findings: http://www.wfft.org/primates/phuket-still-hell-for-protected-wildlife/

Posted by Edwin Wiek / WFFT on February 23, 2013 09:31


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