About Chatuchak Bangkok market and Actions to take
THAILAND
Background : CHATUCHAK market also known as the JJ or Weekend Market
About
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatuchak_Weekend_Market
:intensive pet trade ( iexotic birds , snakes, turtles are sold as pets also , some photos here : http://terry.photoshelter.com/gallery-image/Wildlife-Trade-Asia/G0000Yp1gANvY0vs/I0000EknFN9sb6zo): ! :
""Ornamental pets are plentiful. Bird lovers can find colourful parrots and parakeets almost everywhere. As for aquatic beauty, the selection is truly wide, ranging from a-few-baht-a-piece gold fisd and fancy carps to the more exotic dwellers of the deep sea."" from here http://www.chatuchak.org/pets.html
these poor animals suffer from heat, thirst ...
placed in cages too small (those narrow cages are stacked on each other ) PLS watch at the videos below .
these pups separated from their parents come from dog farms where the reproductions are intensive
** Lot of unsold dogs (and those who do not die from disease, heat, maltreatment) , these poor survivors are ending in dog meat trade .
Thailand is one of the important places of the dog meat trade .
This horrible and shameful huge market VIDEOS :
: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-ibyPZW3o4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPFGMLt2IoA&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Abl7NCruRY&NR=1
*** About the WILDLIFE TRADE in the market :
“Dealers stated openly that many specimens were smuggled into and out of Thailand,” said Chris R. Shepherd, Senior Programme Officer for TRAFFIC Southeast Asia. “They even offered potential buyers advice on how to smuggle reptiles through customs and onto aeroplanes.”
TRAFFIC : http://www.traffic.org/
Dealers were heard urging potential buyers to purchase the most endangered species because of their rarity value.
“It is a sad day when people use a species’s risk of extinction as a selling point,” said Dr Jane Smart, Head of IUCN’s Species Programme. “We urge governments and law enforcement agencies use the information contained in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species to stop this kind of behaviour before it is too late.”
Following disclosure of the report’s findings, Royal Thai Police raided Chatuchak market earlier this month and seized a wide variety of illegal wildlife, including 18 Radiated Tortoises and 3 Ploughshare Tortoises (A. yniphora). The Ploughshare is considered the world’s rarest tortoise—and all international trade is prohibited.
“We congratulate the Royal Thai Police on their recent raid,” says Shepherd. “But recent information indicates the illegal trade continues, and we encourage the authorities to keep the pressure on.”
For more information, please contact:
Chris R. Shepherd, Senior Programme Officer for TRAFFIC Southeast Asia (in Malaysia) tel: +603 78803940, call: +6 012 234 0790, email: cstsea@po.jaring.my
Sarah Halls, Media Relations Officer, IUCN, Tel: +41 22 999 0127; Mobile: +41 79 528 3486; Email: sarah.halls@iucn.org
For relevant photographs, please contact Richard Thomas, Communications Co-ordinator, TRAFFIC International, tel: +44 (0) 1223 279068, email: richard.thomas@traffic.org
NOTES
• TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, works to ensure that trade in wild plants and animals is not a threat to the conservation of nature. TRAFFIC is a joint programme of IUCN - the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and WWF, the global conservation organization.
*** 2 ACTIONS to take :
1 :
Thanks to Marco :
From Sean Whyte
Dear Friend of the Orangutans,
Please could you take a couple of minutes to send the letter below to the people whose email addresses I am providing?
If you do, you will be helping close down one of the worst and possibly best known illegal wildlife trading markets in the world.
It is horrendous what goes on there – very, very close to the CITES http://www.cites.org/eng/disc/what.shtml
office in Thailand. The same office partly responsible for the 12 illegal orangutans still remaining in Thailand – their fate still undecided by CITES.
I visited the market in February and subsequently filed with CITES a very diplomatic report including photos designed to help CITES, which as far as I know they have ignored.
Please send the letter below to john.scanlon@cites.org; and copy to john.sellar@cites.org; Virginia.ROTHENBUHLER@cites.org;
triosant@yahoo.com; pcu@asean-wen.org;
nick.nuttall@unep.org; Adisorn@dnp.go.th;
cites.thailand@asean-wen.org; internationalconservation@fws.gov;
Thanks as always for caring.
Sean
P.S. If you are a dog and/or cat lover, you would not want to visit the same market. This domestic animal trade may be legal, but it is still hellish. Many of the ‘Pedigree’ dogs are imported from puppy farms in .....wait for it .........China. Just imagine.
Please send the letter below this line as a regular email. Adding your name if you would like to. The subject line can be the same as in this message to you.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mr John Scanlon
Secretary General
CITES Secretariat
International Environment House
11 Chemin des Anémones
CH-1219 Châtelaine, Geneva
Switzerland
Dear Mr Scanlon,
You surely know the infamous Chatuchak market in Bangkok has been a hotspot for trading in illegal wildlife for a very long time.
Over the years tens of thousands of protected species will have been openly sold at this market and right under the noses of
your CITES representatives in Thailand. They can hardly miss it, for two reasons; the market is just down the road from the CITES office,
and the illegal trading which goes on there has been the subject of a great many press articles. I gather the traders are very easy to spot as they place large notices outside their shops selling illegal wildlife saying “NO PHOTOS. NO VIDEO.”
Please can you tell me what you propose to do about a) the market? b) your Thailand office appearing to take no action against these illegal traders who between them regularly continue to send thousands of protected animals/birds to an early death. Does this not warrant sanctions against Thailand or, will the CITES Secretariat continue to turn a blind eye and deaf ear? Recent news articles like these bring discredit to CITES do they not? http://www.moveoneinc.com/blog/asia/smuggler-caught-with-more-than-200-live-animals-in-suitcases/ and http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/31/report-finds-lax-monitoring-of-wildlife-trade/?partner=rss&emc=rss
This illegal wildlife trading at the Chatuchak market is as blatant as any could be and it’s practically on CITES Bangkok doorstep. As the head of CITES, as far as I am concerned the buck stops with you.
'Never, never be afraid to do what is right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake. Society's punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way.' - Dr. Martin Luther King
Yours sincerely,
p.s. I have not forgotten those 12 illegally imported orangutans languishing in Thailand for the last two years. Have you? Once again it is your CITES offices in Thailand and Indonesia who are the cause of the problem.
*** Your NAME/COUNTRY
From the CITES web site:
“CITES : http://www.cites.org/eng/disc/what.shtml
Contact form :
http://www.cites.org/eng/contact.shtml
is an international agreement to which States (countries) adhere voluntarily. States that have agreed to be bound by the Convention ('joined' CITES) are known as Parties. Although CITES is legally binding on the Parties – in other words they have to implement the Convention – it does not take the place of national laws. Rather it provides a framework to be respected by each Party, which has to adopt its own domestic legislation to ensure that CITES is implemented at the national level.”
2
Pls send also a polite letter to the King of Thailand and to all Official to stop selling animals in this market ,
BTW this market is very famous in BGK and an hot place for tourists who should boycott this place until animal trade end .
!!all books on Thailand tourism recommend this disguting place !! there is a wildlife black market/trade linked to the market ! we fight since years to alarm people about it .
All links where to find officials in THAILAND here :
Thai government website :
also here : http://www.gksoft.com/govt
Sample letter to send
Sample Letters courtesy http://www.kinshipcircle.org/
Letter to send here also
H.E. Khun Suwit Khunkitti, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment
92 Paholyothin Road, Dwaeng Samsen, Payathai District
10400 Bangkok, THAILAND
general email: webmaster@thaigov.go.th
website: www.thaigov.go.th/
COPY: Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning
60/1 Soi Phibunwattana 7, Rama VI Rd., Phayathai
Bangkok 10400, THAILAND
ph: 02-2797180-9; fax: 02-271-3226
email: info@onep.go.th
website: www.onep.go.th/eng/
COPY: Department of Environmental Quality Promotion
49 Soi 30, Rama 6 Road, Phyathai
Bangkok, THAILAND
ph: 02-2788400-19 ext 1630-1633, 02-2985637; fax: 02-2985637
email: info@deqp.go.th
website: www.deqp.go.th/english/contact/ index_contact.htm
LETTER TO SEND
*** ;About this market and the Zoos, Farms using WILDLIFE in THAILAND
Excellency,
I respectfully ask officials to crack down on underground networks that smuggle endangered species into Thailand.
I am concerned about CHATUCHAK market also known as the JJ or Weekend Market
a theme market that enlisted black-market dealers and trading groups to procure endangered species and pets .
These poor creatures are boxed and most of them dying —
I sincerely commend Police Major General Sawake Pinsinchai of the Royal Thai Police for initiating a series of raids aimed at illicit wildlife syndicates and those engaged in unlawful captive breeding of endangered species.
***As a potential tourist, however, I will not travel to Thailand until animal trafficking laws are vigorously enforced.
Please uphold the Major General's noble efforts by investigating, prosecuting and penalizing wildlife dealers to the fullest extent under Thai law.
In addition,
i speak for Safari World and all the wildlife ZOOS, FARMS and ELEPHANTS Camp
and please seize Safari World's illegally acquired orangutans for rehabilitation and release in Indonesia. Finally, I advocate a permanent ban on the use of orangutans in kickboxing matches.
The WILDLIFE trade and deforestation are destroying these cherished animals.
Wildlife racketeers belong in a jail cell, forced to live like the animals they stole from the wild—without freedom, comfort, or family.
Thank you,
Your name and Country
AND : HOW TO BE A RESPONSIBLE TOURIST :
http://isabella-vegan-page2.over-blog.com/pages/how-to-be-a-responsible-tourist-4638026.html
http://isabella-vegan-page2.over-blog.com/pages/exotic-cuisine-4638225.html
http://isabella-vegan-page2.over-blog.com/pages/pledge-not-to-buy-wildlife-souvenirs-4638176.html
Responsible Tourism is tourism which:
• minimises negative economic, environmental and social impacts
• generates greater economic benefits for local people and enhances the well being of host communities
• improves working conditions and access to the industry
• involves local people in decisions that affect their lives and life chances
• makes positive contributions to the conservation of natural and cultural heritage embracing diversity
• provides more enjoyable experiences for tourists through more meaningful connections with local people, and a greater understanding of local cultural, social and environmental issues
• provides access for physically challenged people
• is culturally sensitive, encourages respect between tourists and hosts, and builds local pride and confidence