On Wednesday the 22nd of February, Phetchaburi’s World Wildlife Foundation Thailand’s founder (WFFT) Edwin Wiek joined a protest at the Thai Parliament to push for animal welfare law changes and the immediate closure of the infamous PATA zoo.
This zoo on top of a shopping mall in central Bangkok keeps Buanoi, the lone single gorilla, many other great apes and monkeys from all over the world, and other endangered and protected wild animals, even though the zoo had its zoo license revoked over 3 years ago.
After living for more than 30 years in a glass and cement enclosure, the WFFT feelS that Buanoi needs to be moved to a natural environment with grass, trees and other animals to live with, and eventually move to a place with other gorillas.
In addition to the call for freedom of the animals at PATA Zoo, Edwin also pushed for better enforcement of existing wildlife protection laws and a higher budget from the government for the care of injured, dumped and confiscated wild animals under the care of the wildlife department. The annual budget has been cut 20% over the last few years, while the number of animals under their care has steadily increased.
