Wildlife authorities in Thailand have found Wednesday dozens of dead tiger cubs in a freezer at the controversial tourist attraction the Tiger Temple. It is yet to understand whether the carcasses were linked to illegal wildlife trade.
Complaints have been usual about trafficking of endangered species from the temple. Following those a decision was earlier taken to shut down the attraction.
The wildlife rangers found the 40 dead cubs while removing adult tigers from the campus.
The Tiger Temple is a Buddhist monastery and tourists get close contact with tigers. However, animal rights activists and conservationists accused of abuse and exploitation of the animals.
According to the wildlife officials, only one cub was reported dead in government record and the remaining 39 goes without any trace about the killing.
Several parts of Tiger body are in huge demand in China and some other parts of Asia for use in traditional medicine. Frozen tiger cubs too are sold as last month arrest was made of a Vietnamese man who was carrying four dead cubs.
Temple rep Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua said, “We have declared all the deaths to the officials over years… They’ve known about these carcasses for a long time.”
Meanwhile, temple officials have denied any wrongdoing.