PUBLISHED : 15 Feb 2024 at 04:00
Police have arrested a Chinese woman for keeping a lion cub illegally in a Phuket hotel room.
She was detained following complaints she was putting the cub on display every day in her coffee shop.
Natural Resources and Environmental Crime Division (NRECD) officers, accompanied by local police and wildlife officials, went to the coffee shop in Muang district on Tuesday, but did not see the young lion.
They were told the owner kept the lion at a nearby hotel and brought it to the coffee shop for 2-3 hours each day. They went to the hotel, where they found a Chinese woman and a two-month-old female cub, which she called Nong Kiwi, Pol Col Arun Vachirasrisukanya, deputy commander of the NRECD, said yesterday.
The woman was taken into custody because the animal was being kept in a place that did not meet regulatory requirements and was unsuitable for raising a lion.
Investigators were told she bought the cub from a Bangkok company on Jan 9 for 250,000 baht. However, she had no ownership transfer documents from the firm, Pol Col Arun said.
The owner presented a document giving the number of a microchip said to be implanted in the animal. A check found the lion was not microchipped. The arresting officers believed the microchip document was for another animal, not the lion cub she had.
She was charged with failing to notify authorities that she possessed the animal, and illegally moving it, in violation of the Wildlife Conservation and Protection Act. She was being held in custody at Muang police station.
The cub would be placed into the care of an appropriate agency, Pol Col Arun said.
Police did not release the woman’s name, and blurred her face in photos they gave out.