There's something undeniably mysterious and majestic about tigers, even in captivity. In Thailand recently David O'Shea heard about a major tourist attraction featuring big cats where allegations are flying thick and fast about abuse and exploitation. David decided to take the full tourist experience to find out what was going on.
REPORTER: David O’Shea
There's no doubt that getting this close to such majestic predators is a special and unique experience. At Thailand's Tiger Temple, tourists get to breakfast with the monks and play with the cubs. They get to walk the tigers.
GUIDE: We take picture for you.
And wash them. Hand feed them... And then exercise and entertain them. The whole Tiger Temple experience is built on the legend of the gentle monks and their almost magical relationship with the rescued animals in their care.
GUIDE: Special photo.
But it doesn't come cheaply. It costs $170 per person for the special morning session. With hundreds more arrivals at midday and an extra charge for photos, this place generates enormous profits. Only the highest-paying customers get to play with the young cubs, even if they are not so keen on the idea.
Even though these tigers are hand reared, they still have wild instincts. You have to sign a legal disclaimer before being allowed in. A number of visitors and staff have been bit ten or mauled. Only a day before my visit, a Dutch woman ended up in hospital with nine stitches. The danger doesn't seem to concern the Thai Government.
REPORTER: Are you not worried that one day one of the children will get eaten?
NARONG MAHANNOP (Translation): I’m not worried that children will get eaten. When I was monitoring their feeding, the working tigers were fed grilled chicken until they were full. When they are full they will not attack people.
Narong Mahannop is from the Department of National Parks.
REPORTER: What about scratched or just because they're frustrated, they might scratch?
NARONG MAHANNOP (Translation): They are too fat and lazy – they are fat. They look fat and lazy.
It's the job of the Department of National Parks to keep an eye on the Tiger Temple. The Director of Wildlife Conservation is positive about the place, even the plastic bag game.
NARONG MAHANNOP (Translation): That is actually to help train the tigers not to be stressed – this is how to tame the tigers.
Tourists are told the temple is a sanctuary for rescued tigers. And that the Abbot, in charge, is helping with the conservation of this highly endangered species. But that's contested by those who say it's just a lucrative breeding-for-tourism operation with no conservation values and a history of abuse.
SYBELLE FOXCROFT, ACTIVIST: And this is my accommodation in here. I will show you what it is. There's my bed.
Conservationist and animal rights activist, Sybelle Foxcroft, came as a volunteer to the temple in 2007, to study the treatment of captive tiger here for her university degree.
SYBELLE FOXCROFT: I'm going to go for a walk back down to the tiger canyon. I saw something that I don't know if it's right or wrong, but I'm pretty sure it's wrong. So I'm going to see if I can film it and this is Day 1.
She is soon turned into one of its fiercest critics.
SYBELLE FOXCROFT: It was terrible, it was shocking, it was probably one of the most horrific things that I've ever seen.
The former medic in the Australian Army says back then abuse was common.
SYBELLE FOXCROFT: We're talking about punches in the face, we're talking about hitting them with sticks up their anus and in their genitals. We're talking about that kind of thing.
REPORTER: You've seen that, have you?
SYBELLE FOXCROFT: Yes.
REPORTER: Often?
SYBELLE FOXCROFT: Yes, yes.
The temple says their critics are over reacting. That no tigers are hurt and assertive treatment is the only way to subdue and train these powerful animals. The manager of the temple's foundation has called conservationists who investigated the temple, among them Sybelle Foxcroft, biased and denies tigers were mistreated.
SYBELLE FOXCROFT: I personally saw sticks being broken across tigers' backs. Now, you don't do that. That is not necessary. Particularly with the ones that I witnessed, they were doing nothing. They were behaving themselves and doing nothing and all of a sudden somebody walks into the enclosure and starts hooking into them.
REPORTER: Isn't this the only way they're going to be able to control such big beasts?
SYBELLE FOXCROFT: With beatings? No. With lack of veterinary care? No. With not addressing medical issues immediately? No.
Dateline requested an interview with the Abbot about these and other allegations but we were told he was too busy. We then sent a detailed list of questions but the Abbot has chosen not to comment. A few hours from the Tiger Temple, there's an animal sanctuary which operates along very different lines. There are no tourists here, just some very noisy gibbons and a whole bunch of rescued wildlife.
All have suffered, be it in tiny cages, abuse, electric shocks, or car accidents. It's run by Edwin Wiek, who's been in dispute with the Abbot at the temple before. He also knows a lot about tigers
EDWIN WIEK: Let's go see Miau. He's a tiger that had spinal surgery lately and he's under rehabilitation at the moment, so.
Miau had been chained up at a petrol station where he was very badly beaten. He was brought into Edwin Wiek's care 11 years ago.
EDWIN WIEK: Hello big boy, how are you?
REPORTER: He can't move.
EDWIN WIEK: He can move. His problem was he's been hit quite badly when he was very young and by his owner, he was actually a pet of somebody. He got hit so badly that he broke his neck.
He's currently recoup rating from spinal surgery.
EDWIN WIEK: I'm actually a bit worried that he might never walk again, in that case he can't stay with us for much longer.
REPORTER: What will happen to him then?
EDWIN WIEK: Well, I think an animal that can only lay down and cannot move and cannot walk anymore has little quality of life. I think even in Thailand where Buddhism is a big thing, I still think it's not right to keep an animal alive when he has no chance of recovery and is suffering. I'm not saying he's suffering at the moment, but it's a tough thing to see.
He's doing a lot better than before the surgery, but I'm still not happy with the surgery. You see, he's walking by himself, he's actually walking, but there's not much control yet. He's basically telling them, "I want to stop". See.
He's deeply critical of the very public claims that the Tiger Temple is involved in tiger conservation.
EDWIN WIEK: They're all being kept there for entertainment and nothing else. So it's basically a business and it has nothing to do with conservation of the species. They are a hybrid species they are not really full bred Thai or South East Asian tigers.
The Tiger Temple sued Edwin three years ago for defamation but then dropped the charges.
EDWIN WIEK: People think by contributing to the Tiger Temple they're contributing to conservation of tigers – well actually, to the contrary. The Tiger Temple has been involved in the past in illegal exchange across the border of tigers, this to so-called saying they needed new blood, new genes and it was good for breeding. But they forget to tell everybody that they never released the tiger back to the wild ever and that they will never do so.
Narong Mahannop from the National Parks Department wants the Tiger Temple to stop breeding but then he launches into his controversial personal theory, that farming tigers is the way to stop the illegal hunt.
NARONG MAHANNOP (Translation): If more people raise tigers, there will be less poachers hunting them in the forests. You could farm tigers like you farm pigs or cattle and sell them. You can’t stop people from eating tiger meat.
REPORTER: Farming them for their meat? I'm surprised you say that.
NARONG MAHANNOP: Yes. You cannot stop Chinese people eating tiger.
These are the sort of views that enrage animal rights activists. They also fly in the face of the agreement on endangered animals that Thailand is a signatory to. But according to Sybelle Foxcroft, there are deeper concerns about whether the temple is involved in the illegal wildlife trade. This is Sangtewan.
SYBELLE FOXCROFT: This tiger's just been breeding constantly. She's had litter after litter.
One night at the temple in April 2007, Sybelle Foxcroft heard vehicle movements near Sangtewan's cage and went to take a look. She says her new-born cubs were put into the back of a truck and driven away. She was convinced she had just witnessed highly illegal activity.
REPORTER: So there's no doubt in your mind that the cubs were inside that vehicle?
SYBELLE FOXCROFT: There's no doubt, the cubs were inside. The next morning I go and check, the cubs are gone. Sangtewan is going out of her mind, she's been roaring since early hours of that morning. I'm asking the temple staff, "Where are the cubs gone?" I'm asking the volunteers where the cubs have gone and it was a given in those days, "They've gone now."
Sybelle Foxcroft believed a trade with a tiger farm in Laos was happening regularly. If so it's highly illegal.
SYBELLE FOXCROFT: The temple staff also talk very openly, they did talk very openly about they've gone to the Laos tiger farm. I just finished doing that filming.
That was the point she agreed to become an undercover investigator for the conservation group, Care for the Wild International. She soon uncovered documents she said proved her suspicions.
SYBELLE FOXCROFT: On the medical files under each one it says where they came from. There's ones from Laos, ones that are wild caught. It doesn't matter how they got them, it was illegal. They were not orphaned, rescued tigers, and those documents prove it.
This document shows the tiger farm in Laos and the Tiger Temple were exchanging tigers to improve the gene pool for breeding.
REPORTER: What do you make of this document?
NARONG MAHANNOP (Translation): By law, this cannot be done between Thailand and Laos, it is illegal. It cannot be done. It contravenes the CITES treaty which forbids the trading of tigers.
REPORTER: So why is the Tiger Temple breaking Thai law?
NARONG MAHANNOP (Translation): Just this document? We can’t prove anything. We can’t prove anything.
The Tiger Temple hasn't responded to our questions about the alleged tiger trade. Non-government organisation, Care for the Wild International says six tigers were traded between April and August 2007. Sybelle Foxcroft says evidence of more trade was staring them in the face with two African lions on site.
SYBELLE FOXCROFT: Okay, more trades - you're talking about the two lions? They're illegal. This was a monastery, not a zoo. It was a monastery. They were told not to breed or trade. Next thing two African lions rock up. Next, two Arabian camels rock up. They ended up dying out in the back there because they didn't know how to look after them either. But yes, so the trades were still going on.
The 2008 report released by Care for the Wild International, following the three-year investigation that Sybelle Foxcroft contributed to, came to these damning conclusions. "The Tigers are poorly housed and badly maltreated...it has become a breeding centre to produce and keep tigers solely for the tourists…Illegal international trafficking helps to maintain the temple’s captive tiger population. There is no possibility of the temple’s breeding program contributing to the conservation of the species in the wild".
The Tiger Temple has long been in the sights of the National Parks Department. They arrived unannounced only last month to ask the Abbot some questions. In 2002 they accused the temple of illegal breeding. The following year they confiscated seven tigers. But with the numbers now passed 100 the Department wouldn't know what to do with they all if they did decide to confiscate them again.
NARONG MAHANNOP (Translation): At first we raided them, no one claimed to own the tigers, but we had no space so we asked the temple to keep the tigers.
While the Tiger Temple is able to avoid most scrutiny, because of his outspoken ways, Edwin Wiek is always in trouble.
EDWIN WIEK: I have to go to the prosecutor's office where I will probably be charged with illegal wildlife possession for the last 12 years rescuing wildlife.
He says he's been targeted by people at the National Parks Department who don't like his direct-action campaigning. For their part the department says this is not true. Surrounded by animal-loving volunteer supporters, the ex-patriot Dutchman has decided he won't post bail this time and he's prepared to go to jail.
EDWIN WIEK: I have enough for one person to settle bail and I don't want my wife to sit in jail. So I will take the heat and she can go home and take care of the animals.
The Dutch embassy has dispatched its first secretary.
REPORTER: The cavalry arrived?
EDWIN WIEK: Yes.
With the Dutch Government guaranteeing bail, after a long day, Edwin and his wife emerge from detention.
EDWIN WIEK: I just can't believe that I'm being locked up with murderers and I don't know what else, you know, for helping animals. That really drives me crazy, I can't understand that.
In 2007, Sybelle Foxcroft's days as an undercover investigator at the temple came to an abrupt end when her cover was blown and she had to leave.
SYBELLE FOXCROFT: I am shitting myself.
She returned in 2010 in disguise and filmed this footage to show how the bigger tigers were still being held in what she saw as unacceptable conditions. Out of sight of the tourists.
SYBELLE FOXCROFT: There's tiger after tiger hidden underneath there. Tourists would probably be quite appalled if they saw all these tigers put in together underneath. That's why tourists are not allowed to go under there. That's why I had to sneak under there. I'm getting away because people are coming up that way. I go up and there's the tiger jumped up at me.
REPORTER: Your heart is beating here?
SYBELLE FOXCROFT: Very much.
Now back again, she slips in unnoticed for the busy mid-day session and starts filming her video diaries. All know she will continue her tough criticism of the temple, she notices there have been dramatic improvements since her last visit.
VOLUNTEER: Yeah, they have a schedule so that everyone gets out.
SYBELLE FOXCROFT: All 105?
VOLUNTEER: There's two right now that are not getting out, because the enclosure is not finished.
SYBELLE FOXCROFT: You're telling me all the tigers get out here?
VOLUNTEER: They're not permanently out, which is the end goal.
Temple volunteers have been writing to Foxcroft urging her to come and have a look at the positives.
REPORTER: You're saying it's changed a lot?
SYBELLE FOXCROFT: I can see that it's changed a hell of a lot.
VOLUNTEER: Even me in the two months I've been here, it's been evolving at an increasing speed. The fact of the matter is the monks want the best for the tiger too and unfortunately they were ill prepared and mistakes were made in the past. I think mistakes are fine as long as you're learning from them. I think right now they are clearly working on bettering themselves. They have super-long-term projects going on.
SYBELLE FOXCROFT: Have they ceased breeding the cubs yet? For the tourists?
VOLUNTEER: Unfortunately, the monks don't believe in controlling life. If a male tiger does show that he wants to breed, if, a few female tigers are thrown in.
Edwin Wiek says the government should be putting an end to the whole spectacle.
EDWIN WIEK: It's becoming bigger and bigger at a point of no return. I would say if we don't stop the breeding as suggested by the government only last month, if we don't stop the breeding it will get even more out of hand than it already is.
YALDA HAKIM: David O'Shea in Thailand. As David mentioned, despite what appears improvements for the tigers, the Tiger Temple has chosen not to respond to our questions.
Reporter/Camera
DAVID O’SHEA
Producer
ASHLEY SMITH
Fixer
SAWITREE WONGKETJAI
Editors
SUSAN BELL
NICK O’BRIEN
Translations/Subtitling
KANYARAT RITTIDECH
Original Music Composed by
VICKI HANSEN
Additional footage courtesy of Sybelle Foxcroft and the Freeland Foundation
REPORTER: David O’Shea
There's no doubt that getting this close to such majestic predators is a special and unique experience. At Thailand's Tiger Temple, tourists get to breakfast with the monks and play with the cubs. They get to walk the tigers.
GUIDE: We take picture for you.
And wash them. Hand feed them... And then exercise and entertain them. The whole Tiger Temple experience is built on the legend of the gentle monks and their almost magical relationship with the rescued animals in their care.
GUIDE: Special photo.
But it doesn't come cheaply. It costs $170 per person for the special morning session. With hundreds more arrivals at midday and an extra charge for photos, this place generates enormous profits. Only the highest-paying customers get to play with the young cubs, even if they are not so keen on the idea.
Even though these tigers are hand reared, they still have wild instincts. You have to sign a legal disclaimer before being allowed in. A number of visitors and staff have been bit ten or mauled. Only a day before my visit, a Dutch woman ended up in hospital with nine stitches. The danger doesn't seem to concern the Thai Government.
REPORTER: Are you not worried that one day one of the children will get eaten?
NARONG MAHANNOP (Translation): I’m not worried that children will get eaten. When I was monitoring their feeding, the working tigers were fed grilled chicken until they were full. When they are full they will not attack people.
Narong Mahannop is from the Department of National Parks.
REPORTER: What about scratched or just because they're frustrated, they might scratch?
NARONG MAHANNOP (Translation): They are too fat and lazy – they are fat. They look fat and lazy.
It's the job of the Department of National Parks to keep an eye on the Tiger Temple. The Director of Wildlife Conservation is positive about the place, even the plastic bag game.
NARONG MAHANNOP (Translation): That is actually to help train the tigers not to be stressed – this is how to tame the tigers.
Tourists are told the temple is a sanctuary for rescued tigers. And that the Abbot, in charge, is helping with the conservation of this highly endangered species. But that's contested by those who say it's just a lucrative breeding-for-tourism operation with no conservation values and a history of abuse.
SYBELLE FOXCROFT, ACTIVIST: And this is my accommodation in here. I will show you what it is. There's my bed.
Conservationist and animal rights activist, Sybelle Foxcroft, came as a volunteer to the temple in 2007, to study the treatment of captive tiger here for her university degree.
SYBELLE FOXCROFT: I'm going to go for a walk back down to the tiger canyon. I saw something that I don't know if it's right or wrong, but I'm pretty sure it's wrong. So I'm going to see if I can film it and this is Day 1.
She is soon turned into one of its fiercest critics.
SYBELLE FOXCROFT: It was terrible, it was shocking, it was probably one of the most horrific things that I've ever seen.
The former medic in the Australian Army says back then abuse was common.
SYBELLE FOXCROFT: We're talking about punches in the face, we're talking about hitting them with sticks up their anus and in their genitals. We're talking about that kind of thing.
REPORTER: You've seen that, have you?
SYBELLE FOXCROFT: Yes.
REPORTER: Often?
SYBELLE FOXCROFT: Yes, yes.
The temple says their critics are over reacting. That no tigers are hurt and assertive treatment is the only way to subdue and train these powerful animals. The manager of the temple's foundation has called conservationists who investigated the temple, among them Sybelle Foxcroft, biased and denies tigers were mistreated.
SYBELLE FOXCROFT: I personally saw sticks being broken across tigers' backs. Now, you don't do that. That is not necessary. Particularly with the ones that I witnessed, they were doing nothing. They were behaving themselves and doing nothing and all of a sudden somebody walks into the enclosure and starts hooking into them.
REPORTER: Isn't this the only way they're going to be able to control such big beasts?
SYBELLE FOXCROFT: With beatings? No. With lack of veterinary care? No. With not addressing medical issues immediately? No.
Dateline requested an interview with the Abbot about these and other allegations but we were told he was too busy. We then sent a detailed list of questions but the Abbot has chosen not to comment. A few hours from the Tiger Temple, there's an animal sanctuary which operates along very different lines. There are no tourists here, just some very noisy gibbons and a whole bunch of rescued wildlife.
All have suffered, be it in tiny cages, abuse, electric shocks, or car accidents. It's run by Edwin Wiek, who's been in dispute with the Abbot at the temple before. He also knows a lot about tigers
EDWIN WIEK: Let's go see Miau. He's a tiger that had spinal surgery lately and he's under rehabilitation at the moment, so.
Miau had been chained up at a petrol station where he was very badly beaten. He was brought into Edwin Wiek's care 11 years ago.
EDWIN WIEK: Hello big boy, how are you?
REPORTER: He can't move.
EDWIN WIEK: He can move. His problem was he's been hit quite badly when he was very young and by his owner, he was actually a pet of somebody. He got hit so badly that he broke his neck.
He's currently recoup rating from spinal surgery.
EDWIN WIEK: I'm actually a bit worried that he might never walk again, in that case he can't stay with us for much longer.
REPORTER: What will happen to him then?
EDWIN WIEK: Well, I think an animal that can only lay down and cannot move and cannot walk anymore has little quality of life. I think even in Thailand where Buddhism is a big thing, I still think it's not right to keep an animal alive when he has no chance of recovery and is suffering. I'm not saying he's suffering at the moment, but it's a tough thing to see.
He's doing a lot better than before the surgery, but I'm still not happy with the surgery. You see, he's walking by himself, he's actually walking, but there's not much control yet. He's basically telling them, "I want to stop". See.
He's deeply critical of the very public claims that the Tiger Temple is involved in tiger conservation.
EDWIN WIEK: They're all being kept there for entertainment and nothing else. So it's basically a business and it has nothing to do with conservation of the species. They are a hybrid species they are not really full bred Thai or South East Asian tigers.
The Tiger Temple sued Edwin three years ago for defamation but then dropped the charges.
EDWIN WIEK: People think by contributing to the Tiger Temple they're contributing to conservation of tigers – well actually, to the contrary. The Tiger Temple has been involved in the past in illegal exchange across the border of tigers, this to so-called saying they needed new blood, new genes and it was good for breeding. But they forget to tell everybody that they never released the tiger back to the wild ever and that they will never do so.
Narong Mahannop from the National Parks Department wants the Tiger Temple to stop breeding but then he launches into his controversial personal theory, that farming tigers is the way to stop the illegal hunt.
NARONG MAHANNOP (Translation): If more people raise tigers, there will be less poachers hunting them in the forests. You could farm tigers like you farm pigs or cattle and sell them. You can’t stop people from eating tiger meat.
REPORTER: Farming them for their meat? I'm surprised you say that.
NARONG MAHANNOP: Yes. You cannot stop Chinese people eating tiger.
These are the sort of views that enrage animal rights activists. They also fly in the face of the agreement on endangered animals that Thailand is a signatory to. But according to Sybelle Foxcroft, there are deeper concerns about whether the temple is involved in the illegal wildlife trade. This is Sangtewan.
SYBELLE FOXCROFT: This tiger's just been breeding constantly. She's had litter after litter.
One night at the temple in April 2007, Sybelle Foxcroft heard vehicle movements near Sangtewan's cage and went to take a look. She says her new-born cubs were put into the back of a truck and driven away. She was convinced she had just witnessed highly illegal activity.
REPORTER: So there's no doubt in your mind that the cubs were inside that vehicle?
SYBELLE FOXCROFT: There's no doubt, the cubs were inside. The next morning I go and check, the cubs are gone. Sangtewan is going out of her mind, she's been roaring since early hours of that morning. I'm asking the temple staff, "Where are the cubs gone?" I'm asking the volunteers where the cubs have gone and it was a given in those days, "They've gone now."
Sybelle Foxcroft believed a trade with a tiger farm in Laos was happening regularly. If so it's highly illegal.
SYBELLE FOXCROFT: The temple staff also talk very openly, they did talk very openly about they've gone to the Laos tiger farm. I just finished doing that filming.
That was the point she agreed to become an undercover investigator for the conservation group, Care for the Wild International. She soon uncovered documents she said proved her suspicions.
SYBELLE FOXCROFT: On the medical files under each one it says where they came from. There's ones from Laos, ones that are wild caught. It doesn't matter how they got them, it was illegal. They were not orphaned, rescued tigers, and those documents prove it.
This document shows the tiger farm in Laos and the Tiger Temple were exchanging tigers to improve the gene pool for breeding.
REPORTER: What do you make of this document?
NARONG MAHANNOP (Translation): By law, this cannot be done between Thailand and Laos, it is illegal. It cannot be done. It contravenes the CITES treaty which forbids the trading of tigers.
REPORTER: So why is the Tiger Temple breaking Thai law?
NARONG MAHANNOP (Translation): Just this document? We can’t prove anything. We can’t prove anything.
The Tiger Temple hasn't responded to our questions about the alleged tiger trade. Non-government organisation, Care for the Wild International says six tigers were traded between April and August 2007. Sybelle Foxcroft says evidence of more trade was staring them in the face with two African lions on site.
SYBELLE FOXCROFT: Okay, more trades - you're talking about the two lions? They're illegal. This was a monastery, not a zoo. It was a monastery. They were told not to breed or trade. Next thing two African lions rock up. Next, two Arabian camels rock up. They ended up dying out in the back there because they didn't know how to look after them either. But yes, so the trades were still going on.
The 2008 report released by Care for the Wild International, following the three-year investigation that Sybelle Foxcroft contributed to, came to these damning conclusions. "The Tigers are poorly housed and badly maltreated...it has become a breeding centre to produce and keep tigers solely for the tourists…Illegal international trafficking helps to maintain the temple’s captive tiger population. There is no possibility of the temple’s breeding program contributing to the conservation of the species in the wild".
The Tiger Temple has long been in the sights of the National Parks Department. They arrived unannounced only last month to ask the Abbot some questions. In 2002 they accused the temple of illegal breeding. The following year they confiscated seven tigers. But with the numbers now passed 100 the Department wouldn't know what to do with they all if they did decide to confiscate them again.
NARONG MAHANNOP (Translation): At first we raided them, no one claimed to own the tigers, but we had no space so we asked the temple to keep the tigers.
While the Tiger Temple is able to avoid most scrutiny, because of his outspoken ways, Edwin Wiek is always in trouble.
EDWIN WIEK: I have to go to the prosecutor's office where I will probably be charged with illegal wildlife possession for the last 12 years rescuing wildlife.
He says he's been targeted by people at the National Parks Department who don't like his direct-action campaigning. For their part the department says this is not true. Surrounded by animal-loving volunteer supporters, the ex-patriot Dutchman has decided he won't post bail this time and he's prepared to go to jail.
EDWIN WIEK: I have enough for one person to settle bail and I don't want my wife to sit in jail. So I will take the heat and she can go home and take care of the animals.
The Dutch embassy has dispatched its first secretary.
REPORTER: The cavalry arrived?
EDWIN WIEK: Yes.
With the Dutch Government guaranteeing bail, after a long day, Edwin and his wife emerge from detention.
EDWIN WIEK: I just can't believe that I'm being locked up with murderers and I don't know what else, you know, for helping animals. That really drives me crazy, I can't understand that.
In 2007, Sybelle Foxcroft's days as an undercover investigator at the temple came to an abrupt end when her cover was blown and she had to leave.
SYBELLE FOXCROFT: I am shitting myself.
She returned in 2010 in disguise and filmed this footage to show how the bigger tigers were still being held in what she saw as unacceptable conditions. Out of sight of the tourists.
SYBELLE FOXCROFT: There's tiger after tiger hidden underneath there. Tourists would probably be quite appalled if they saw all these tigers put in together underneath. That's why tourists are not allowed to go under there. That's why I had to sneak under there. I'm getting away because people are coming up that way. I go up and there's the tiger jumped up at me.
REPORTER: Your heart is beating here?
SYBELLE FOXCROFT: Very much.
Now back again, she slips in unnoticed for the busy mid-day session and starts filming her video diaries. All know she will continue her tough criticism of the temple, she notices there have been dramatic improvements since her last visit.
VOLUNTEER: Yeah, they have a schedule so that everyone gets out.
SYBELLE FOXCROFT: All 105?
VOLUNTEER: There's two right now that are not getting out, because the enclosure is not finished.
SYBELLE FOXCROFT: You're telling me all the tigers get out here?
VOLUNTEER: They're not permanently out, which is the end goal.
Temple volunteers have been writing to Foxcroft urging her to come and have a look at the positives.
REPORTER: You're saying it's changed a lot?
SYBELLE FOXCROFT: I can see that it's changed a hell of a lot.
VOLUNTEER: Even me in the two months I've been here, it's been evolving at an increasing speed. The fact of the matter is the monks want the best for the tiger too and unfortunately they were ill prepared and mistakes were made in the past. I think mistakes are fine as long as you're learning from them. I think right now they are clearly working on bettering themselves. They have super-long-term projects going on.
SYBELLE FOXCROFT: Have they ceased breeding the cubs yet? For the tourists?
VOLUNTEER: Unfortunately, the monks don't believe in controlling life. If a male tiger does show that he wants to breed, if, a few female tigers are thrown in.
Edwin Wiek says the government should be putting an end to the whole spectacle.
EDWIN WIEK: It's becoming bigger and bigger at a point of no return. I would say if we don't stop the breeding as suggested by the government only last month, if we don't stop the breeding it will get even more out of hand than it already is.
YALDA HAKIM: David O'Shea in Thailand. As David mentioned, despite what appears improvements for the tigers, the Tiger Temple has chosen not to respond to our questions.
Reporter/Camera
DAVID O’SHEA
Producer
ASHLEY SMITH
Fixer
SAWITREE WONGKETJAI
Editors
SUSAN BELL
NICK O’BRIEN
Translations/Subtitling
KANYARAT RITTIDECH
Original Music Composed by
VICKI HANSEN
Additional footage courtesy of Sybelle Foxcroft and the Freeland Foundation