Officers from the Khao Phra Thaew Non-Hunting Area Conservation Centre in Thalang arrived at Kata Beach at about 8pm last night (June 30) after receiving a tip-off from people at the beach yesterday afternoon.
The tout appeared there every day with a very young slow loris, The Phuket News was told by one observer.
The man reportedly admitted to the animal’s teeth being pulled so its bite could not harm tourists when having their photos taken with the animal.
“This man apparently has a woman working with him and does short stints with the loris before surfing. The woman seems to keep the loris for him up above the steps,” The Phuket News was told.
Piyawat Sukon, Chief of the Khao Phra Thaew Non-Hunting Area Conservation Centre in Thalang, told The Phuket News today (July 1), “After we received a photo of the man reportedly with a slow loris at about 3pm yesterday, my team went to Kata Beach.
“They arrived at about 8pm and found a young man near Karon Municipality dressed in the same shirt and pants, and baseball cap, as in the photo, but he did not have a slow loris was with him.”
The 14-year-old was already known to Chief Piyawat’s team.
“His nickname is ‘Pang Pong’ and he is 14 years old, and this is the second time he has been found suspected of being involved in working as a slow loris tout,” Mr Piyawat said.
“The first time was two years ago, and that time he was caught with a slow loris. He said that he had found it by accident and that he didn’t mean to keep it, and so we seized the loris from him anyway,” he added.
“As the photo did not clearly show that it was him with the slow loris, we could not charge him. All we could do was warn him,” Mr Piyawat said.
However, the boy, with his mother present to talk with officers, provided some information that may help to track down the man who provided the slow loris, Mr Piyawat added.
“Last night, he [Pang Pong] told officers that he had already sent the slow loris back to its owner in Kamala. He admitted that he is paid a commission from tourists having their photo taken with it,” he said.
“This is important information for us as the real owner is in the Kamala area. We will investigate further to try to track down this man,” Mr Piyawat assured, but declined to reveal any further details.
As for Pang Pong, Mr Piyawat told The Phuket News, “We just told him to stop making money from slow lorises anymore. We warned him that if our officers catch him a third time, he will be arrested.”