A sedated 2-month-old tiger cub was rescued from an unknown future on Thursday at the Bangkok Suvarnabhumi International Airport. An alert security official noticed the cub when the suitcase that it was in went through an x-ray machine. The tiger was in luggage filled with stuffed toys to camouflage it. A 31-year-old Thai national was scheduled to board a flight to Iran with the animal in his suitcase in the aircraft's luggage compartment.
This incident, which apparently isn't that unusual in Southeast Asia, was reported by the nonprofit organization TRAFFIC. The organization's is the world's largest wildlife trade monitoring network and is a joint program between the World Wildlife Fund for Nature and the World Conservation Union.
The tiger cub was discovered in an oversized bag when a scan showed what looked like, and turned out to be, a real cat. Thai officials are trying to determine where the animal came from and if it was caught in the wild or bred in captivity.
A spokeman for TRAFFIC commented, "If people are trying to smuggle live tigers in their check-in luggage, they obviously think wildlife smuggling is something easy to get away with, and do not fear reprimand. Only sustained pressure on wildlife traffickers and serious penalties can change that."
Comments
that is just insane, and so sad for the tiger. thank goodness they saw it on the screen.
How horrible. The penalty should be to put the trafficker in a suitcase the same way and ship him someplace.
He's so cute. Glad he didn't smother. People are sooo weird! They don't make great pets unless you are Siegfried and Roy.
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