Tigers

As a sorta birthday present to myself, I decided to go to hangout with tigers. There are a couple places you can do this in Thailand. The Tiger Kingdom in Chang Mai and the Tiger Temple in Kanchanaburi are the only places that I know of. Before visiting either, I had heard mixed reviews from travelers and definitely polarized reviews on the Temple.
After getting a positive review on the Kingdom from the Irish couple doing the Gibbon Experience, I decided that it would be wise to go to that one, and perhaps if I felt up to it, do the Temple as an additional one.
The Kingdom is set up as a breeding facility for Tigers that will go to zoos. There isn't many controversial claims about this one, but I will comment on the ones that are used for the Temple, just to make sure that I address them. They don't make any claims that the tigers will get released or anything. When you arrive, you buy 10 minute passes to hangout with different age groups of tigers; five in all. I bought one with newborns (4 weeks-8 weeks), small tigers (6 months - 12 months), and the big boys (full grown tigers near 2 years and up). When you aren't visiting them, you are free to wonder about the zoo-like grounds for as long as you want. The place isn't huge, you can walk the grounds in 10 minutes.
I found this place to be quite nice. The tigers were definitely not drugged. I was there in the midday and sure they were a bit tired, mostly sleeping, but when aroused they were alert and showed no lethargy. Some walked about at a slow gate and an occasional one in one of the cages who'd been sleeping looked tired, but that doesn't mean they were drugged. I'm the same way when I'm tired, I move slower and can have a fog. If you waited a couple minutes though and observed them, you could see that that's all it was.
The other negative reaction out there is that the tigers are physically abused. For the Kingdom, they carry around small bamboo sticks. Every now and then they will hit the tiger with it. Now, that sounds abusive, but the way they did it I didn't find so. Never did I see any trainer, handler, or any staff hit a tiger out of malice. I found with the Kingdom, that everyone involved really enjoyed the company of their tigers and that there was a bond between them. The smacking was playful in nature, like you do with your dog when you get him riled up. You bat him around a bit. Imagine your dog was 500lbs. You may have to be a bit rougher. Nor did it appear by the reaction of the tiger to be anything but an invitation to play a little.
My only complaint was that I felt the tigers living quarters were a bit small, considering that in nature they have a territory of a few square miles. A volunteer (so take it with a grain of salt) told me that they originally had larger enclosures, but the tigers would only use a small portion of it, so they made them smaller. I'm not sure I totally buy that, but I do have to say that the tigers did seem happy. Well, except the ones that were temporarily in cages about 10ft x 10ft, they looked bored and longingly at the enclosures.
All in all, I really really enjoyed my time there and while their goal isn't some moral crusade, they don't try to make it seem like one. I also felt the staff was much happier and enjoyed goofing around with each other and the tigers. I would recommend this place.

Now, the ultra-controversial one; the Tiger Temple. I decided I wanted to go to this one to get a handle on what is going on. Many of the claims are pretty outrageous, and I needed to see for myself since there are a lot of bleeding hearts out there that blow things out of proportion. The story of the temple is quite unique and interesting. When I say temple, I mean that this place is a Buddhist temple run by monks. They are kinda out in the middle of nowhere on a huge piece of property (I think I heard almost 300 acres). I believe one day a person brought them a tiger whose parents had been poached. Monks are offered animals all the time. Most of the time it's cows or dogs or cats. The reason being is that Thai people don't believe in birth control for their animals, then they breed and they have too much. They don't want to kill them cause it will bring bad luck, so they give it to the temples for good luck and a nice life. They also will "save" animals, like buying cows destined for slaughter, and give it to the monks to receive good luck. The monks aren't supposed to turn them down and are bound to "take care of them".
So, this temple received a tiger, then another, and they became known as a a refuge for animals. They have wild boar and deer that came to them naturally, roam about the grounds, and are free to leave. They have a ton of cows, some donkeys, a very fat bear, an ostrich, and a pair of lions. The last three most likely are there cause some rich asshole bought them either to protect his estate, or because he wanted cool pets, later realizing that they are dangerous wild animals. The original goal was to release the tigers back into the wild, though I don't think this has happened. Instead, they began breeding them. Remember, that they don't believe in birth control (that extends to not even separating them into different cages when a female is in heat).

The controversy is quite polarized. There are major animal rights groups that are claiming abuse, like that they are chained to a short space, that they live in cages when not paraded around with the monks, that they are beaten, taught to fear their handlers, and some general neglect like poor facilities and vet care. Every criticism seems to point at them being drugged, claims that their are bribes to government to overlook things, and everyone questions where the money generated from tourism is going.
Before I get into my observations on the Temple, I'd like to point out that there are different degrees of abuse. Captivity is abuse. It's probably one of the lowest degrees of abuse, but it still is abuse. It is exactly the same as if a human being was born into a jail that they'll never leave. But there are degrees, and most have to do with intent.
Here is my take from what I observed:

The grounds - the grounds are located in the middle of forest type land, but seem to be pretty barren; more a kin to a desert than a jungle. They have some pens or enclosures built for the tigers, and there is major construction going on. They have been working on what they call "tiger island" for 4-6 years. It seems like it should be done within the next couple weeks. One leniency that people have offered in their complaints is that the money was going to building this habitat, which is quite huge with 8 or 10 enclosures that would be considered their living quarters. There is an elevated walkway that winds through the middle of all the enclosures and beneath it are tiger cages. I found that tiger island will be quite wonderful upon completion. However, this leniency has dwindled because of the amount of time it is taking.
I think most people see it through their home eyes. If it were the US, it'd have been done about 4 years ago (and probably be a bit nicer in standard or at least not a bit nicer looking). Like many less developed countries, building things usually takes a bit more time. I heard Thailand is not an exception, generally speaking. However, the only thing that seems left to do is put up some fencing. That even at a snails pace, shouldn't take more than another month. In the meantime, they could utilize the enclosures that currently have the fencing in place. Are they, no. In addition, they have enclosures with waterfalls and stuff for general, non-living quarter type viewing, but will have the tigers in cages behind it. The tigers may prefer it as a hiding spot from the public, but leave the option open to them. These I find no reason for and I would put under the category of medium abuse and complete bullshit.

 Where are the tigers?

 Oh here they are

Obese bear

Drugs - the tigers didn't appear to be sedated, save maybe one. I was trying to pay close attention to their eyes to see if they were "all there". The ones in enclosures were playing and obviously not drugged. The ones CHAINED (I'll get to this in a minute) in the quarry, didn't appear sedated either. There were a few 6 month olds that were paraded about the premises by monks. One of them seemed off. I observed that he seemed to want to get down from a perch, but seemed unable to figure out how. He didn't seem too alert, but he was awake. The monk gave him a water bottle to play with and he did, though I felt a bit slower than normal. Lastly, I noticed that the stump he was laying on was wet. I couldn't figure out why. It could have only been water (from that water bottle) or urine. I don't think it is common for tigers to lay in their own urine. I hope that it was water.
I'm not an expert on drugged up tigers, though I've seen dogs doped up, and I've been on pain killers which are a bit similar so I at least know what it looks like to some degree. I will give the temple the benefit of the doubt since all the other tigers seemed normal (like the tigers at the Kingdom). Plus, the tiger may have been on medication. However, why would you make him hang out with tourists.

Here are some videos. The last one is of the tiger that may be drugged. You can decide:

I am unsure if that's urine or not. I didn't see where it came from

General health - To an untrained eye, the tigers looked physically healthy, though dirty from being chained in the dirt all day. They didn't quite look as healthy as the ones at the Kingdom. I did observe the ritual of the head monk bottle feeding a 18 month old tiger. This is very odd. At that age, why is he being fed milk? Seriously, I'm totally confused and don't know if it's fucked up or not. It seems fucked up.
Their mental health seems in line with animals that have to put up with being around a ton of people touching and prodding them. I don't know what a depressed tiger looks like, but at the Kingdom, they were definitely visibly happier.

Physical abuse - I didn't see anyone hitting the tigers with malice. I did see some things that I didn't like, but that on the scale of things, I think the critics can prioritize towards the end of the list. The tigers that were chained in the quarry (they call a canyon) were harassed by the staff. The staff are not the same as the monks. They are volunteers or paid Thai. They didn't seem to share the same compassion and bond as the staff at the Kingdom. They were also very pushy with the visitors. Annoyingly so. Anyway, occasionally I'd see one pulling the tail, or pulling it's nose up. There was some innocent play going on, but there was some abuse of power going on. The intent may have not been quite mean, per say, but it wasn't for the tigers benefit. I also, saw one staff member poke a tiger in the balls. WTF? Even if the tiger was into that kind of thing, GROSS!

 Those are the staff, not monks

The monks - this I think I found the most disturbing. After learning about the Buddhist principles from a monk in Chang Mai, I found that these weren't quite legit monks. I'd call them jack monks. Almost all had tons of visible tattoos, were smoking around the tigers, I saw some eating after 12PM, etc. They definitely to a lax view to the Buddhist principles.
I mad a snap judgment, which are usually the best, in a few minutes of watching the abbot (head monk). He took some weird pleasure out of feeding the 18 month old tiger milk from a bottle. Afterward, he sat with a peculiar expression. It wasn't the jolly, whimsical, "whatever" look that most of the monks have. To me, and this was just my opinion, there was something dishonest about it. It was almost a smug, self satisfaction, saying, "yeah, I am in control here. Now give me your money and leave". On their website, they really try to drive home the point that the abbot doesn't want these responsabilities, that this just kinda happened. But, if you look at the picture of him bottle feeding the adult tiger he definitely is enjoying being in control. Plus, that smug self satisfied look he had...

In conclusion, I found that the tiger temple, while not as bad as most of the criticisms make it out to be, still wasn't in the tigers' best interest. The critics have to understand the Thai culture and the Buddhist thinking. The relationship between the human animal and other animals is much different here, and criticisms are from western eyes, which doesn't make them anymore correct. In that perspective, most of what they are doing isn't considered bad. In their mind, they are behaving the way that is holy. Even so, there are some things that don't quite add up when you look at it in that perspective, like why they cage them when they can just as easily let them be out in the enclosures. That being said, I have a final couple things that really pissed me off.
One thing that pissed me off, is that they were building other structures, like a really weird Tiger monument that was hollow inside and what I'm going to guess will be a hotel. These two things are being constructed at a much faster pace than the enclosures.

They had more plans for constructing some additional enclosures in a different area of the park and improvement of the grounds, even though they can't complete the island. They also had plans for some giant, crazy massive, Buddhist playground called Buddhist Park Project (see also). This project is estimated at 1 billion baht (35 million dollars)! WTF! How unnecessarily extravagant for monks.

The other thing that pissed me off was that the intent has changed from saving tigers, to breeding them. On the surface it seems like a good thing because of how endangered they are. However, being born in captivity and not being taught how to hunt, these tigers can never be released. It's cruel to breed an animal that will never be free. Esp. to use the guise of doing it to save them. Buddhists believe in helping animals when given to them, but they also believe in letting the universe play out the way it's supposed to. In other words, they should help sick tigers given to them, not breeding them. Bunch of dickhead monks if you ask me.
This obviously is a money making operation under the guise of good deeds.