An emaciated, 20-year-old tiger name Salamas was among 12 elderly tigers and three leopards who have been rescued from an infamous tiger farm in northern Thailand.
The undisclosed captive tiger facility in northern Thailand was visited by government officials on December 16 following legal action over alleged illegal wildlife trading. Veterinary teams and wildlife experts from Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand (WFFT) were on hand to rescue the animals, in the first part of the largest tiger rescue operation by an NGO in Thailand’s history.
The initial rescue involved 15 animals, chosen based on who required the most urgent medical care.
Salamas was among the first to be rescued. While most tigers were sedated so that they could safely be moved into transport cages, Salamas’s condition meant that the veterinary team advised against this due to the risk of her not waking up again. Rescuers instead spent hours gently encouraging the tiger with food so she would walk from her concrete enclosure into the transport cage. It was feared that she was too weak to walk, but eventually she gathered her strength and stumbled over to the cage. She was then lifted to the specialist wildlife ambulance that then made a 12-hour drive to the wildlife rescue sanctuary. Although alarmingly skinny and with huge patches of fur missing, rescuers are hopeful that Salamas will now begin to recover.
Credit: Amy Jones WFFT 
Credit: Amy Jones WFFT 
Credit: Amy Jones WFFT 
Credit: Amy Jones WFFT 
Credit: Amy Jones WFFT 
Credit: Amy Jones WFFT 
Credit: Amy Jones WFFT 
Credit: Amy Jones WFFT 
Credit: Amy Jones WFFT 
Credit: Amy Jones WFFT 
Credit: Amy Jones WFFT 
Credit: Amy Jones WFFT 
Credit: Amy Jones WFFT 
Credit: Amy Jones WFFT 
Credit: WFFT
These animals have been kept in small, concrete enclosures for their entire lives. It is therefore believed that their new sanctuary home will be the first time that many of these animals will have felt grass beneath their paws and sunlight on their fur.
The rescued animals will now receive urgent medical care at their new forever home at WFFT, which currently looks after nine other rescued tigers. Located in Phetchaburi, the sanctuary’s dedicated Tiger Rescue Centre allows the rescue tigers to live freely in more than 17 acres of near-natural habitat, where they can run around, swim in the lake and socialise with other tigers.
The undisclosed tiger zoo and farm has reportedly been embroiled in legal action with government wildlife officials for many years. It has faced several government visits already, including in 2020 when the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP) found evidence of wildlife trafficking such as a severed tiger’s head and other tiger parts.
“After months of planning the biggest tiger rescue by an NGO in Thailand’s history, we are thrilled to now finally give these magnificent animals a new life at WFFT’s Tiger Rescue Centre,” says Edwin Wiek, founder and director of WFFT. “Sadly, they will never be able to return to the wild, but we can offer them the next best thing: a safe, sanctuary home where they can roam forested land, socialise with other tigers, and even swim in the lake.”
Wiek added that there are many more animals still at the farm still waiting to be saved.
