Pata Zoo Back in the International Spotlight for Animal Cruelty

Bangkok — The abysmally cruel Pata Zoo is once again making global headlines, as disturbing footage from a new PETA investigation reveals squalid conditions and sick, suffering animals at Bangkok’s notorious department store zoo —including a monkey with a severe skin disease pacing back and forth in a barren, concrete enclosure. Video footage from the investigation is available on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, and a broadcast-quality link can be found here.

PETA investigators documented several other animals who appeared in need of urgent veterinary care, including a sick hornbill lying flat on a concrete ledge and a pony suffering from open sores. Nearly every animal at the decrepit zoo was also imprisoned in a cage with little to no enrichment—including the gorilla, Bua Noi, who’s been alone and behind bars for decades, and an orangutan with nothing to do but poke at a muddy puddle.

A monkey suffering from skin disease at Pata Zoo.
Credit: PETA

“Pata Zoo puts animals on display as if they’re inanimate objects, depriving them of everything they need to thrive, including mental stimulation and medical care,” says PETA Senior Vice President Jason Baker. “PETA is calling on this shoddy shopping mall zoo to shut its doors and transfer the animals to reputable facilities, where they can get the care they desperately need.”

After hearing from PETA, multiple tenants of the Pata Department Store—including MR DIY, Watsons and Lotus’s—stopped supporting the Pata Zoo by ending their leases at the mall. The pressure is now on Bigsu Graphic and Rush B Laser Game to follow suit, and on the facilities’ directors—Wisu Sermsirimonkol, Anupap Sermsirimonkol, Thanawit Sermsirimonkol, Kunnai Sermsirimonkol and Kunnuch Sermsirimonkol—and shareholders to finally accept PETA’s offer to help transfer Bua Noi and the other animals to a sanctuary. Time is running out for Bua Noi, but a move could allow her to be with others of her kind and, for the first time in her life, feel the sun on her face and touch grass beneath her feet.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone. For more information, please visit PETAAsia.com or follow PETA Asia on X.