Thailand trip notes...under construction...

Tiger Temple

I have heard different things on the web about tiger temple being cruel, and others saying it is lovely and the tigers are treated well, I have found this account of two volunteers there, who said it was a good experience and the tigers are well taken care of:

Work: While we were at the temple, the cubs were nearly six months old. Almost every morning, we helped clean out the cubs cages and gave them a bath. While cleaning out cub cages, we were in the cages with them. Big tiger cubs are like big kittens. They want to play, they play using teeth and claws, and they will grab you. Bearing in mind that they are almost Labrador sized, you must keep up your guard. One morning we cleaned out the big tiger cages. Only experienced tiger staff can enter a cage with a tiger still in it. The cages are designed so that a tiger can be locked into any one of four quarters of the cage, so there is no need to be in the cage with them at all. We also helped to feed the tigers each morning. They are fed cooked chicken, beef offal and cat food. The chicken and beef are cooked so that the tigers do not get a taste for blood. The cat food is added because commercial cat food manufacturers always add back essential vitamins that are lost during cooking. The cat food of choice is Whiskas. We helped take the tigers down to the canyon for the afternoon. It is an amazing experience to walk along beside a 300-400 pound tiger while resting your hand on his back so he knows where you are. Some of the tigers are on leads to go to the canyon but most of them just amble along beside you, slowly and patiently. Once in the canyon, the real work begins for us. There is no real need to help with the tigers as there are staff employed to look after them. The staff also work in the canyon, taking visitors up to the tigers and taking photographs. Most of the staff only speak Thai and most of the visitors speak no Thai. We spent 4 to 5 hours each day organising visitors, advising them of what they could and could not do and answering questions. If you are going to volunteer, this is where you will be most useful. Do a bit of research about the temple and it’s history, the individual tigers and tigers in general and the plans for the future. Most common questions were about the individual tigers, how old they are, how many tigers here, what their names are. Questions about tigers in general included, how many species of tigers there were, how much they weigh and do they get the same diseases as domestic cats. Other common questions were, are the tigers drugged (no) and are they vegetarian (no). Fortunately we knew a lot of the answers to start with and what we didn't know on the first day, we had learned by the second! We also got involved in taking photographs and one day Alan was tiger guard at the bottom of the canyon while the cubs were swimming. His job was to stop the cubs running too far from the pool so that they couldn't run up to the other tigers and visitors and cause general chaos. We were willing to help with anything, and having animal handling experience (although not with tigers), we were confident with the tigers while still being respectful and on our guard. Because of this, we were allowed to help with everything and were also allowed to be on our own with the cubs. The temple will always accept help on a more professional level than casual volunteer work. If you have experience of large wild animals, or running a zoo or wild animal sanctuary, then consider working here for a while. As well as the tigers, there are many other animals on site, which could provide great experience for trainee vets, for example. http://www.tigertemple.co.uk/volunteer.htm