Thailand: Petition to Government – End Orangutan Boxing Matches – These Primates Are More Intelligent Than You !

Posted on April 2, 2013 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)

Thai

orang boxing

Petition Link:  http://forcechange.com/62904/end-orangutan-boxing-matches-in-thailand-now/?utm_source=ForceChange+Newsletter&utm_campaign=8ae41217ba-NL3874_2_2013&utm_medium=email#gf_1
  

End Orangutan Boxing Matches in Thailand

By Christopher Baranowski

Target: Government of Thailand

Goal: Stop inhumane orangutan boxing matches at the Safari World theme park

At the Safari World theme park in Thailand, orangutans are forced to put on gloves and fight each other in “fake” boxing matches as an attraction for visitors.  Despite attempts for years to shut down the operation, this outrageously inhumane event continues to this day.  Demand an end to this brutal spectacle by asking that the government of Thailand close Safari World for good.

Since 2005, over 22,000 apes have been sold, killed while being hunted or died in captivity as a part of the illegal trade of primates that still continues to this day.  Huge profits are made selling illegally captured primates to zoos and other attractions around the world at the cost of biodiversity in places like Africa and southeast Asia.  One of the destinations for these captured animals is the Safari World theme park in Thailand.  Safari World drew harsh criticism as early as 2004 when evidence of orangutan boxing matches set up for tourists began to circulate among animal welfare groups.  That year, the government seized 48 orangutans and returned them to their native country of Indonesia.  But in 2010, images of kickboxing orangutans once again began to surface and animal rights activists renewed their charge against Safari World.  Just last month, citizens in Indonesia donned monkey masks to protest the boxing shows that continue to go on.

According to reports, the orangutans at the theme park are dressed in traditional boxing gear and “pretend” to knock each other out, though animal activists insist the chances of the heavy animals knocking each other out is very real.  Winners are awarded food and other rewards but ultimately both primates return to the dark cells where they are illegally kept.  It is time to stop this disgusting display of animal brutality; orangutan boxing certainly stands as the most shameful symptom of the illegal primate trade.  No operation that has repeatedly been cited for such flagrant abuse should be able to continue to exist.  Demand that government officials put an end to the orangutan boxing matches by closing Safari World for good.

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