Tiger Rescue

I had meant to fly home that same Friday when the call came in that the rescue had been given the go-ahead. My bags were packed, my camera cleaned, and my family excited to see me after a total of 7 months photographing the work of Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand (WFFT). But I knew that what was about to happen was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

With my flight moved back 4 days, I stuffed batteries, memory cards, and clothes into my rucksack and set off on the road with the rescue team, knowing that on the return journey to the sanctuary, 15 big cats would be in tow with us.

24 hours later we stepped out into a tiger farm in Northern Thailand. After years of photographing the wildlife trade, I wasn’t sure I could be shocked by all the terrible things humans do to animals, but the huge buildings that housed rows of big cats who had never seen sunlight or felt grass on their paws hit me hard.

In Thailand, an estimated 1,700 tigers are confined in tiger farms such as this one. These facilities range from small to large-scale operations and breed big cats for sale to zoos, as exotic pets, and for their body parts, such as skin, bones, and teeth.

These animals have been kept in small, concrete enclosures for their entire lives, with many of them spending over twenty years in captivity. Thanks for the tireless work of rescuers, these lucky few survivors of the trade will be released into WFFT’s tiger rescue sanctuary, where they can explore the forested land, bathe in lakes, and discover what it means to be a tiger.