“The four elephants in the camp are legal but the camp is keeping a Siamese crocodile in a improper cement enclosure, without a license,” he told the Phuket News.
“The complaint also mentioned that the camp had a gibbon that was being abused but we could not find it. We believe that it may already be dead.”
He said that the chief of Khao Lak-Lam Ru National Park seized the crocodile and the owner was arrested, though protesting he had a license and just needed two weeks to find it.
Weerasit Putthipairot, Phuket Provincial Livestock Office chief, told the Phuket News that there might be other kinds of animals in the elephant camp but that safety was the priority.
“The most important thing is area management to ensure the safety of all animals inside, and of the visitors,” he said.
“In this case, the owner could build a concrete enclosure [for the crocodile] but it needs to done properly, in a way that protects people and elephants from the crocodile, as well as being appropriate for the crocodile itself.”