The owner of a well-known crocodile farm in Thailand’s northern Lamphun province says he has reluctantly decided to slaughter more 100 adult crocodiles, to prevent them from escaping due to heavy flooding, which is threatening to bring down the farm’s wall.
Natthapark Kamkart, the owner of the Intern Lamphun crocodile farm in Ban San Khayom in Mueang district, said in his Facebook post that heavy rain and flooding in the past few days have already caused some sections of the wall to give way.
With more rain, he said he is afraid that the entire wall may collapse and that many crocodiles would escape into the environment and jeopardize the people in the community.
To pre-empt this, he said he consulted his family and they unanimously agreed that, for the sake of public safety, some of the adult crocodiles should be slaughtered and their carcasses kept in the cold storage to be sold later.
He admitted that it was a difficult decision, because he has been raising and breeding crocodiles for about 17 years and many of them are about 17-years-old.
“The rains this year are so intense and I have had to make a quick decision,” he said, adding that, under normal circumstances, he would not slaughter his adult reptiles because it means that, for the next few years, he will be unable to breed.
According to Natthapark, there are about 700 crocodiles in his farm. 90 adults, all of which are 17-years-old from one pond and another 35 from another pond have been slaughtered.
