Footage Shows Abandoned Phuket Zoo Where Animals Are Living In Squalor

A group of friends were horrified when they came across an abandoned zoo where alligators and tigers had been 'left for dead'.

Minh Nyugen and his friends were out on a walk in Phuket, Thailand, when they discovered starving tigers, dozens of alligators and eight bears living in squalor.

Minh, who is originally from Australia but currently lives and works in Thailand, posted the video to YouTube and has even set up a GoFundMe to be able to raise money for the zoo.

According to The Thaiger, the owners of the zoo are bankrupt and have since filed to completely close down the facility amid the coronavirus lockdown which has led to a lack of tourism.

YouTube/minh nguyen

On the GoFundMe page, Minh has made it clear that he doesn't want to create hostility towards the zoo's owners or 'point any fingers about who did what'.

The page goes on to explain: "Our purpose and end goal is to save the animals and have them rehabilitated/rescued safely. Please help in anyway you can. All proceeds will go towards saving and rescuing these animals."

So far they have raised AU $36,269 (£18,000) of their original AU $20,000 (£10,000) goal and posted an update thanking people where Minh said: "Thank you everyone for the generosity that you've shown for the cause especially in during time which I imagine everyone has been affected in some way, its greatly appreciated."

YouTube/minh nguyen

In the original YouTube video, Minh said: "We got in there for a bit of a laugh, and thought we were going to come across some healthy animals.

"Initially we saw about a dozen alligators, crocodiles or whatever they are in the confinement... but as we moved on we came across a second [pen] and it was a bit disturbing.

"We could see there was a bit of a situation. These alligators had been left for dead... they were just in s***e conditions."

According to The Sun, the group then returned to the zoo the next day with meat to feed the animals, but were confronted by a zookeeper who asked them for 7,000 Baht (£172) which would feed one tiger for one day.

LADbible has contacted the zoo for a comment.

Topics: Zoo, News, Thailand, Animals

Rebecca Shepherd

I'm Becky - a journalist at LADbible. I graduated with a First Class BA in Journalism before going on to cover criminal court cases, medical tribunals and breaking news for the national media - which inevitably and eventually became as glum as it sounds. Can often be found rocking a bag for life - which I made a 'thing' way before Rihanna. You can contact me at [email protected]

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