"Phuket Zoo" a Phuket Travel Page by Tina-Perth

After enjoying our visit to the Singapore Zoo and Bird Park, we thought we'd visit the Phuket Zoo.

What a sad experience! I am not sure whether to try to deter people from going and supporting such a place or whether that will make life worse for the animals.

The zoo sells prawn crackers to feed the animals for 100 baht per packet. No wonder the animals have so many digestive problems.

We saw a bird with a broken wing, animals begging us at the front of their cages. Australian birds looked particularly sick. No sun on their feathers has caused them to go dull and sticky looking. The emu was losing his feathers.....etc etc. The Butterfly Garden? It must have been off-season or something because the garden was totally devoid of butterflies - not one in sight.

This zoo is disgraceful! I have many more pictures, but cannot fit them up here. Pictures of slimy green drinking water, broken legs or wings and horrible conditions. We also saw a monkey "fly" to the side of a cage to try to attack one of the zoo employees as he walked past. We had been spending time with it just before that and the monkey was quiet and gentle with us. Obviously the monkey knew the difference between him and us.

The Phuket Zoo left me feeling extremely distressed due to the poor state of the animals. I almost cried several times.

This Civet Cat has chewed its tail out of frustration, loneliness and boredom. It has been left untreated. You can see it close to the cage wire, as it was also begging us.

This magnificent creature is a prisoner of an uncaring zoo owner whose obvious priority is income. When we've seen him he is lying on this concrete pad, as he does for most of the day. The trainers sit near him and constantly hit him across the paws with a stick.

The tiger cubs were in tiny cages where they sat for the day whilst waiting for tourists to come up and have their picture taken with them.

He has no bedding in his cage or here. Animals like this need room to move - and some comfort wouldn't go astray.

The hell hole the tiger lives in when he's not chained to a concrete pad where he is used for photo opportunities with visitors. The trainers constantly hit him when we were there and you could tell how depressed the poor animal was.

Many of the cages had runny faeces in them showing that the animals are either being fed the wrong food or have developed digestive problems.

This poor leopard paced non-stop back and forth in his foul little concrete prison. He was very distressed.

How much more wrong could this treatment be? This is not a zoo, it is a prison.

This is one of the sad, sick looking Macaws. Parrot birds are highly intelligent and need interaction and stimulation otherwise they chew their feathers and fret.

There is nothing in these dirty, dim, bare little cages to occupy these birds. They don't even have another bird to share with.

It is important for birds to get both sunshine and water on their feathers for health. In these cages they get neither. Just like all the other birds, they had no seed in their bowls and dirty water

As you probably know, otters, as well as many other animals live in communities. They need socialisation and stimulation. They are intelligent animals.

Look at his dirty water and the concrete floor he lives on. No grass or straw for bedding - God, then they'd have to clean the cages out properly!

You can see the runny faeces in this cage as with other cages. Another animal being fed inappropriately as he is also fed prawn crackers by visitors.

This bear stood at the wall of his cage and begged to us. It was heartwrenching.

Other tourists we spoke to whilst standing there were disgusted and upset too.