Animal Cruelty and Illegal Trade at the Tiger Temple
 The Tiger Temple, Thailand’s most controversial tourist attraction, is of great concern to tiger conservationists and wildlife conservation organisations around the world. Care for the Wild International (CWI) has uncovered evidence of illegal tiger trade contravening national and international wildlife laws, severe cases of animal cruelty and serious visitor safety concerns in a three year investigation study. Please visit www.careforthewild.com to see the report and accompanying images released in 2008.
 The Tiger Temple and tour operators profiting from this exploitation would have you believe that it is a wildlife rescue centre and tiger conservation program, but this is nothing more than greenwash. The Thai Department of National Parks (DNP) has stated they will not allow any reintroduction of interbred captive tigers in the forests, but the Tiger Temple continues to make the misleading claim that they are breeding to repopulate tigers in the wild. The Tiger Temple has not conducted any surveys or research into wild habitats for tigers (vital for any species reintroduction program), nor have they presented any information of conservation value.
 At least 12 tigers were shipped across international borders illegally during CWI’s investigation. Cross-border trading was also carelessly admitted by managing staff during meetings with them. Temple officials have also admitted that the first 10 tigers came from private owners. This is in direct contradiction to the Tiger Temple's publicity claims and promotional portrayals in travel shows and other media that the first tigers to arrive there were wild orphans rescued from poachers. The Tiger Temple is based on an elaborate lie, which is fed to tourists and volunteers again and again.
CWI and the International Tiger Coalition (ITC), comprising of the world's leading tiger experts, scientists and conservation organisations, have expressed their concerns and urged the Thai authorities to conduct a full investigation of the Tiger Temple. The DNP's response has been to set up an ID card database for tigers in captivity across Thailand, which uses the animals’ unique skin stripe patterns. The move is intended to guard against illegal trade.
The tigers are kept in tiny bare cages for long periods of the day. They are only let out to be paraded for photographs. At the Tiger Temple each day, up to a thousand or more visitors - including very young children - are actively encouraged to make close physical contact with the tigers after signing a disclaimer. Staff members are ill-equipped and unprepared to deal with potential emergency situations. The Temple's publicity material makes no reference to the dangers of exposing such vast numbers of humans to close proximity with tetchy, powerful tigers in the intense mid day heat.
CWI recommends a complete boycott of the Tiger Temple, and has the support of several large international tour operators and guides who have dropped the Temple from their books.