Gorilla combat: Pata Zoo vows to ‘hunt down’ animal-rights activists
Pata Zoo is offering a reward of 100,000 baht for information leading to the arrest of five animal-rights activists it accuses of defacing private property by painting slogans on the exterior wall of Pata Pinklao department store last week, calling on the store to release the gorilla from the zoo inside.
“Free Bua Noi”, the slogan reads in English and Thai, referring to the 33-year-old female gorilla “Little Lotus” in the department store’s zoo. She is described by the zoo as the last gorilla in a zoo in Southeast Asia.
The message was painted repeatedly over a 20-metre section on the exterior of the department store’s front wall in the early hours of March 6.
Pata Zoo responded on Friday with a threat. It has filed a police complaint against five activists it says defaced the wall of the department store. The zoo has formed a special team to retaliate against Thai and foreign animal-rights activists, as well as celebrities and entertainers, involved in the “unfair” campaign against the zoo, it said in a statement posted on Facebook.
The zoo will take legal action against them, the Facebook post said.
The conflict between animal-rights activists and Pata Zoo over what the former calls “the world’s loneliest gorilla” has been simmering for a decade.
The Asia unit of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has been campaigning for Bua Noi to be moved from the department store’s zoo to a facility that has larger and more natural enclosures, saying she has been “jailed” for almost all of her life.
PETA Asia uploaded a video clip on YouTube on July 16 2021, showing Bua Noi in a cage it described as hell on earth.
Pata department store has had Bua Noi for more than 30 years and insists she is well-treated. It issued a statement about four months ago, saying reports that she had been sold for 30 million baht were false.
The zoo will never abandon her or put a price tag on her, it said, adding that even when the company is accumulating losses she is well taken care of.
Friday’s Facebook post said five people had trespassed on Pata department store property at about 1am on Monday, March 6. They climbed from a pedestrian flyover onto a balcony on the third floor of the front of the building, the post said.
The five people damaged the company’s property by spraying painting slogans on the exterior wall of the department store, it said.
“[They] damaged the building and the image of the company,” the statement said, adding that the zoo is supervised by government agencies and monitored regularly and thoroughly.
From now on, Pata Zoo will retaliate against unfair campaigns against it, the zoo said.
“We’ll start by hunting down the five wrongdoers who intruded on and damaged the property of Pata store to bring them to justice,” the statement added.
It said the legal division of the company had given CCTV footage to Bang Yi Khan police station.
“The company has formed a special division to gather all the information. The division will start with the names of those who have attacked Pata Zoo and will submit them to the Royal Thai Police,” the statement said.
The names of all those who have publicly attacked the zoo over Bua Noi – including conservationists, entertainers, celebrities and high-profile social figures – will be given to police, it said.
The statement alleged that the advocacy campaign calling on the zoo to hand over Bua Noi was spearheaded by a foreign organisation with an ulterior motive, it said, explaining that it wants to move the gorilla to a country where the foreign organisation is based.
“Gorillas are the most valuable animals that zoos around the world want to have in their possession, " the statement said. No citizens of any country in the world have attacked their country for possessing gorillas, except in Thailand,” the statement concluded.
The petition has been gathering signatures for about a decade.
Pata Zoo said last year that Bua Noi was now too old to move.
The only home she knows is Pata Zoo.
Previous report:
No sign of freedom for gorilla 'Bua Noi' as Bangkok mall rejects pleas
