Introduction to TSPCA

Thailand is perceived by many foreigners as a barbarous country - topping a list of countries with frequent violations and cruelty to animals. These include wild animals, some pets, stray animals, animals used for commercial purposes and in laboratory testing. In addition to which, many people have seen or heard about so called 'exotic foods' and 'longevity potions'. This type of misguided behaviour, serving nothing more than to satisfy ignorant or heartless greed.

Although many concerned citizens and tourists have filed complaints about a range of abuses, including for example indecent captivity, and the torturing of animals in training for the purpose of display, elephants, lions and tigers, bears and monkeys, alligators and snakes are all subject to such continuing malpractice.

Cruelty to animals has become a worldwide topic - and for Thailand is a national disgrace, that has been used as an undeniable excuse to impose trade sanctions on Thai exports. There are also other forms of animal cruelty not so widely known that would shock the world and bring more infamy to our nation. For instance to increase productivity some animal owners reduce animal living space to much below recommended minimum levels, whilst others force fat contact out of pigs, to sell them as wild hogs, by using electric shocks to keep them running!

Animals are not just another form of life on Earth, but are part of the wider ecosystem. And animals and plants depend upon each other, as much as humans depend on both, for their own survival. Many species were on this planet long before us, and can continue to exist without us - whilst we cannot live without them. For this very reason, to hurt or kill too many animals could bring about our own extinction. Thousands of animal species have already become extinct because of human exploitation - including hunting for sport, for trade or exhibition, or commercial use.

The reasons above have brought together a group of people with a love of animals, concern about animal cruelty, and the determination to find and promote measures for protection of the natural rights of all species, to form the TSPCA. Working to similar ends as the UK's Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals - a forerunner in this field established in 1821 - and in parallel with other animal welfare groups worldwide.

Most animals are as much flesh and blood as human beings, feeling love, stress, loneliness and fear, pain, discomfort and hunger, in exactly the same way as we do - and to treat them cruelly, by not recognising these common needs, can only be described as inhuman. Whilst the TSPCA has initiated campaigns for the prevention of cruelty to all types of animals, we have for the purposes of convenience divided them into four main categories: Companion Animals like dogs and cats, Wild Animals such as monkeys, gibbons, bears and elephants, Commercial Animals such as chickens, cows, pigs, fishes, horses and logging elephants, and Laboratory Animals such as mice, rabbits and certain monkeys, used for example in medical and pharmaceutical testing.