February 2005   

Thai Forestry Police Chief bails out Wildlife Activist

Forestry Police Commander supports wildlife rescue center

Petchaburi, Thailand February 3rd 2005 - Dutch born wildlife activist Edwin Wiek was briefly jailed today after appearing in the provincial court to face charges relating to the possession of wildlife without proper documents. Wiek, who runs the acclaimed Wildlife Friends Rescue Center, was charged early in August 2004 after a series of raids and on his rescue center and other acts of intimidation by a few officials. These individuals appear to be trying to stop his involvement in the investigation of the illegal cross-border trade of wildlife and in particular orang-utans. The Wildlife Friends Rescue Center houses over one hundred and fifty protected wild animals, most of which have suffered severe distress, are sick or have physical disabilities. Officials of the Department of National Parks,
Wildlife and Plants (DNP), a department under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, said that for nineteen of these animals the documents were not in order, some of these animals were in fact handed over by officials of the same department Consequently in July 2004 some of these animals were confiscated and removed from the center with great force apparently on the order of Schwann Tunhikorn, director of the DNP Wildlife Conservation Office and Thailand's CITES office. Two of the animals were badly injured during their capture. The animals in question were rescued from several locations in the country and all were properly documented with letters of origin signed by their previous owners. Ten of the nineteen were handed over by the Thai Animal Guardians Association in Bangkok who carry out rescues of all animals in need but do not run a facility for wildlife.


After hearing about the arrest of Wiek, Police Major-General Swake Pinsinchai, commander of the Thai Royal Forestry Police, speeded to Petchaburi provincial court and personally bailed out Edwin Wiek from the court jail. During his appearance in court Major-General Swake told the judge he felt the charges against Edwin Wiek were fabricated and of political motivation. Major-General Swake paid 100,000 Baht in cash to set bail for Wiek.


The Wildlife Friends Rescue Center has been operating for almost four years and has rescued over 500 protected animals since its opening in May 2001. Besides the animals housed at the center, the Wildlife Friends have released
a large number of animals back to the wild and relocated scores of animals to official government facilities and royal projects. The DNP has in the past made use of the facilities offered by the rescue center and even last month handed over 6 more primates for medical treatment at the centers' quarantine unit, Thailand's only such facility.