It wouldn't really be a trip to Thailand without seeing some helpless animals forced to perform for my amusement, so after getting off the boat at Sriracha I was delighted to find out they had a Tiger Zoo nearby. Let the animal rights atrocities commence!
Sriracha Tiger Zoo
(สวนเสือศรีราชา)
(สวนเสือศรีราชา)
Actually, this place wasn't so bad, certainly better than Bangkok's Dusit Zoo and that horrible one in Myanmar. The tigers just seemed a little world weary rather than depressed
Though there are a few borderline dodgy activities, like this one where you shoot targets that drop food onto the tigers' heads. I'd find it hard to believe there's never been a single disturbed kid who couldn't resist the opportunity to shoot a helpless animal in the face like some kind of young A A Gill
The zoo's star attraction is this bloated pig that indiscriminately suckles tiger cubs. These stories are magical and life affirming when they happen in nature, but it loses some of this wonder when a zoo contrives it generation after generation
They used to have the reverse as well, but I guess they're between liberal lactating tigresses right now
In a bizarre, inaccurate and rare example of affirmative action in Thailand, 'authentic Africans' pose with a tiger. Because everyone knows tigers come from Africa (no they don't) rather than from, you know, THAILAND
Morally questionable tiger show.
They love confronting their inherent fear of fire and getting singed three times a day
They love confronting their inherent fear of fire and getting singed three times a day
He loves being dressed like a human. Except the bottom half, he's no fool
Capybaras, the world's biggest rodents, are surprisingly pleasant
A farang gets a massage at the elephant show, complete with happy ending (otherwise what's the point?)
There's a load of crocodiles here as well, but like the surplus of Sarcophagi at the Egyptian Museum, there are too many to do anything useful with except leave them lying around in heaps. You can watch a guy beat the shit out of them in a crocodile show if you enjoy seeing man's superiority over reptiles reinforced, but I declined this time
I watched the much more sensible and humane spectacle of pig racing instead.
This place is weird
