Thailand’s efforts to free its last gorilla from a private zoo in the capital have stalled after the 33-year-old primate’s owner refused a sale offer.
Animal rights activists have long called for the release of Bua Noi (Little Lotus), which has spent more than 30 years in a cage at Pata zoo situated on the seventh floor of a shopping centre in Bangkok.
The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment last week said it was planning to buy the female gorilla from the Pata Pinklao department store that runs the zoo, for 30 million baht (US$786,700).
It added a fundraising campaign could be considered to get the amount to relocate Bua Noi to Germany where she was born, to spend her remaining life with other gorillas in a better environment.
But the department store company derailed the ministry’s bid to end the plight of Bua Noi, which is reportedly confined in a space 20m long and 10m wide at the zoo that started in 1983.
It also dismissed accusations that the gorilla was being locked up at the high-rise, saying the firm spends 10,000 baht (US$262) a month to take care of the animal.
“The department store executives turned down a plan to relocate the gorilla as earlier requested by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. They were not certain that Bua Noi, which has been used to the absence of natural pathogens, could adjust to a new environment,” the company said in a Facebook post on Saturday.
Calling Bua Noi a “cherished animal”, Pata zoo said it is “taking good care of the animal and aware that she could die at any time due to her old age”, the Thai Examiner news website reported.
Thai Environment Minister Varawut Silpa-archa said the government will consult conservation experts before deciding on the gorilla’s future.
In 2020, singer and animal activist Cher pushed for Bua Noi’s freedom and offered to fund the transfer of the gorilla to a sanctuary in the Republic of Congo.
Cher urged the “good people of Bangkok” to help her “stop the torturing of innocent animals”.
“It Is a Sin. Please Help Me Bring Peace to these Animals. &Free Them From Pata Zoo … Shopping Mall,” she said on Twitter.
Pata Zoo also houses other creatures, including orangutans, black bears, tigers and an albino Burmese python. – SCMP
