By coincident I found this site and like to take the opportunity to warn against visiting Pata "zoo" located at the top-floors of Pata department store in Bangkok. Although these premises are a sad animal-prison and far from the international accepted zoo-standards it shall not be closed due too weak Thai animal-protection laws. My advice: don't visit this "zoo" you might leave sad and depressed and don't contribute with your visit. About 70 photos can be seen in my public Flickr-album in the set "animal abuse: Pata zoo" Thanks on forehand, at least in this way you can put some pressure although this "spectacle" is visited by very few foreigners as the department store is mainly drawing locals.
The photos show horrible little cages that honestly should have never been built, and it is 2009 and yet there are still hundreds of atrocious animal facilities all over the world. I see that the link provided also has some other animal abuse photos from Asia, particularly relating to elephants. Awful stuff, and we will all have to hope that eventually the Pata department store in Thailand will join the 21st century in terms of basic rights for animals.
Amazing that this place has some really rare animals! are the orangs breeding here? how did they get a hippo onto a roof?
I don't know, all is quite misterious for me, however I have seen indeed babies! The animals shall be lifted with a big elevator or even a crane: nothing seems to be impossible there!
Pata Zoo I have visited the apalling Pata Zoo several times now and the place gets no better or worse on each visit. There is urgent need for some form of zoo legistaltion in Thailand. The whole situation is extremely confusing. Permission is given for the Tiger Temple to operate as a zoo? Why? So someone somewhere is making decisions on what is good and what is bad. Whoever they are they just do not have a clue. It would seem that this is more a case of someone with contacts in high places swaying the vote. Currently the government are cleaning up the mafia at work in the airports perhaps they can start on the zoo mafia next. A few months old but read my report on: Pata Zoo
Free Bua Noi, the female Gorilla ! : Campaign to free gorilla from high-rise zoo in Bangkok - The Nation
Thanks vogelcommando; I read it and after some problems I could log-in into the "care"-site and I signed. My photo-album(s) in Flickr I deleted for several reasons; my newest one with the old Pata-photo's one can find here: Antoni Uni, el primero UniCo de l'Escala | PATA "ZOO" 2007, 2008, 2009, BANGKOK
Latest news in the Bangkok Post: Parks chief to meet Pata Zoo activists Parks chief to meet Pata Zoo activists | Bangkok Post: Most recent
DNP orders Pata store gorilla be relocated to ground floor Campaigners fear fire risk for rooftop zoo DNP orders Pata store gorilla be relocated to ground floor | Bangkok Post: news
In fact, the displacement of the Gorilla, in spite it's already a win, doesn't help for the other (big) animals as the tigers, the beers etc. "The Pata Zoo is also an unsafe habitat for the animals who live there. In the mid-1990s, a fire at the store reportedly resulted in the deaths of more than 100 birds and other animals." "The fire that broke out in the PATA zoo a few years back drew the Thai people's attention to the plight of these animals. Many animals perished in the blaze. They had a pigmy hippo there at one time, it may not have survived the fire. Many Thai people hate the PATA zoo and would be very happy to see it shut down." Grim conditions in Bangkok department store zoo: Grim conditions in Bangkok department store zoo | World news | The Guardian Again, NOTHING shall happen in a short time! Kanit Sermsirimongkhon, the director of Pata, seems to have the law on his side and is misusing that all for the sake of money! He even put in his WEB-site that Pata "Zoo" is a member of the Southeast Asian Zoo Association (SEAZA), which strongly has been denied by this organization! All in all a very sad history! 139 Photos of Pata in 2007 / 2008 and 2009: http://www.antoniuniphotography.com/p393865662
Looks like there is some good news regarding the welfare of the animals; Gorilla rescued from Bangkok zoo on shopping centre's seventh floor after 28 years in captivity - Asia - World - The Independent
What shocking journalism! "Despite Bua Noi’s long stretch in captivity information on her breed remains scare. If she is a mountain gorilla she is one of the most endangered species on the planet, one of approximately only 700 left on earth - most of which live in the Virunga mountains in central Africa." Good news though for the Gorilla. Hopefully she finds a good home.
From scant pictures I found, she indeed resembles a mountain gorilla more than a western lowland one. Where was she relocated?
the gorilla was imported direct from Guinea in 1987. She is a western lowland gorilla, not a mountain gorilla.
Is there a twist to the story? 'Bua Noi' to remain captive at Pata Zoo | Coconuts Bangkok This article was posted just a few days after the announcements of the zoo's closure.
Online petition for Bua Noi to be moved to onother ( better ) zoo : Better homes await Bangkok’s caged gorilla, petitioner says - The Nation
