Sunday, 3 March 2013

Thai tourist industry 'driving' elephant smuggling

Bangkok (AFP) March 2, 2013



Smuggling the world's largest land animal across an international border sounds like a mammoth undertaking, but activists say that does not stop traffickers supplying Asian elephants to Thai tourist attractions.

Unlike their heavily-poached African cousins - whose plight is set to dominate Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) talks in Bangkok next week