Wildlife Friends of Thailand are a small rescue centre and refuge set up around 10 years ago in the Petchuberi province of Thailand, Edwin found the condition that some of the animals he saw were beyond belief and started to rescue Gibbons, as they were and still are caught from the wild to be sold in the illegal pet trade.Gibbons are not pets in any way, in fact, they are often seen as pests as their habitat is frequently being chopped down to provide housing and industrial sites for people, the gibbons have nowhere to go to get food, so start going into people’s homes and taking food from the kitchens. Gibbons cannot be blamed for the loss of their habitat and search for food, it is a man-made fault yet they take no responsibility for the repercussions. Luckily Edwin and the team are there to help these animals, they have taken in and care for macaques, civets, Loris, cats (including some domestic and a tiger called Meow!) sun bears and Asiatic black bears, exotic birds,a giant otter called Ollie, a Crocodile called Dundee and a gorgeous Binturong called Sandee.
WFFT also have 7 elephants that have been taken off the streets of places such as Bangkok and Cha-Am. Some of the older members started life in the logging trade, but as that was made illegal some 20 years ago, their Mahouts needed to find another way of bringing money in to live off, so they took their elephants to the tourist trade. The tourist trade is particularly dangerous, especially for elephants and one resident 30 year old SamBoon, is a reminder of that. She was taken onto the road by her Mahout when a truck crashed into her back leg, though she didn’t suffer from a broken leg, she did have her ligaments and muscles badly torn, she has recovered now but still walks with an obvious limp.
Pai Lin, who is 60 years old, was taken from the logging industry to go into the tourist trade as well, she was forced to have an extremely heavy metal crate on her back, and to carry up to 8 tourists for a ride at a time. Asian elephants are quite a bit smaller than their African cousins, but even they wouldn’t carry that many tourists in one go; she has been left with severe and painful back problems.
Bua Ngun is their newest resident, she is 65 years old and has had a tragic life up until the moment her mahout decided that she desperately needed help in November 2009, read about her and the others at wfft.org
The team at the centre are often called out by local residents, the police and other charities. They recently assisted the police with a young tiger cub being sold on the illegal market. The centre does incredible work and helps the animals that need it the most, but obviously they can’t help them all, without support.
Due to the recent conflicts in Thailand between the government and Red Shirts, a lot of volunteers have cancelled their volunteering trips and a volunteer operator has cancelled all trips out to Thailand and as you can imagine this has hit the centre hard. The money provided by the volunteers goes directly to the food, medical needs and accommodation for all the animals, and if more volunteers cancel then it could prove very problematic for the centre.
I volunteered there in September 2009 and had an incredible time, I met fantastic people and worked with people I can now call friends. But the centre did more for me then I ever thought it could. I went there to volunteer with the elephants (a dream and obsession of mine since I can remember) I came back with a new desire to change my life, help all these magnificent animals get back to their life that has been cruelly taken from them . The centre needs donations and volunteers, because of the political troubles in Thailand they need all the help they can. I am doing the Wirral Coastal Walk in May (23 2010) for the centre and all donations for the walk can be matched or donations direct to the centre can be sent through their website.
