Thailand tracks illegal wildlife sales on social media
In Thailand, a wildlife crime unit monitors the illegal sale of animals on social media and conducts operations to seize them. This was reported by Dawn, citing AFP. Employees of Thailand’s Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation are combating trade in, among other things, leopards, hornbills, anteaters, African ivory and monkeys.
Raid team leader Nawi Changpirom said that on one occasion, officers found live corals hidden in a ceiling. Thailand has rich local fauna, access to rare species from neighboring countries, and transport links by sea, air and land, making the country important to the illegal wildlife trade.
Undercover work
In 2023, the department created a separate Wildlife Crime Intelligence Unit, where three employees work on a permanent basis. According to its director, Polawi Buchakiet, social media has become a key channel for buying and selling animals in the illegal trade.
Sellers often do not offer animals openly, instead writing that they need to be “rehomed” and posting cropped photographs so as not to reveal their location. To obtain court warrants to seize animals, undercover officers gather evidence. One of them, who uses the pseudonym Tee, said he posed as an electrical repairman to look into yards and take photographs, and as a surveyor to look through windows from neighboring plots.
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According to him, sometimes sellers could not be found or the team arrived too late: animals were found dead or so exhausted that they died shortly after being rescued. Smuggled animals are often weakened by transport, experience stress from losing their habitat and family group, and are vulnerable to unfamiliar diseases.
Seizure at the airport
A six-month-old leaf monkey was intercepted in luggage at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok; it was to be taken to India. Another monkey found in the same bag died after being rescued. Veterinarian Thanawati Paichana noted that smugglers sometimes give animals sedatives or mild anesthetics so that they do not move or make sounds.
Animals rescued in and around Bangkok are first taken to a small department center for initial treatment and then transferred to shelters. Healthier adult animals can sometimes be returned to the wild, while young animals find it more difficult to acquire the skills needed for survival. Crimes involving protected species in Thailand are punishable by up to 10 years in prison, while crimes involving endangered species are punishable by up to 15 years.
The unit also faces a shortage of staff and funding, while social platforms, according to officials, hinder its work. Changpirom said that officers posing as buyers sometimes spend their own money on this.
