THAILAND TRAVEL NEWS: For a holiday experience with a difference travelers with an affection for endangered or neglected and abused animals might like to spend a bit of time at the Wildlife Friends Rescue Center in Hua Hin.

The Wildlife Friends Rescue Center in Hua Hin is home to a mixed assortment of native fauna, including Asian elephants, monkeys, gibbons, bears, birds, a very large crocodile and an injured tiger to name just a few.

Situated about 30-minutes outside of Hua Hin, the Wildlife Friends Rescue Center is funded entirely by donations, while people visiting the area often take time out of their holiday to help out with the animals’ chores.

Edwin Wiek, founder & director, of Wildlife Friends Rescue Center Hua Hin, said people were welcome to visit the center as often as they wanted – there is no fee -, while volunteers able to spend a minimum of a week helping out were greatly appreciated.

Though it operates as a full-time wildlife rescue and rehabilitation centre for injured animals, some small, local travel agents have started including a visit to the Wildlife Friends Rescue Center at Hua Hin as part of tours around area, while many local taxi drivers also now of the center and are able to take tourists there as part of a day trip of the local sites.

Mr. Weik said anyone interested in helping out at the Wildlife Friends Rescue Center in Hua Hin for a week or longer should contact the center. On-site accommodation is available for week or longer volunteers, with all meals also being provided.

People volunteering at the Wildlife Friends Rescue Cente at Hua Hin and staying onsite are asked to pay a small fee, with 50 percent of the money being used for animal welfare purposes and the balance used to pay the salaries of local staff.

Irrespective of whether tourists had the time to visit the center of not, Mr. Weik implored all visitors to Thailand to reject any offers they receive while in the kingdom to have their photos taken with, or provide food to, native fauna being hawked around many of the country’s tourist destinations.

“Feeding an elephant in an elephant camp might be a good thing, but feeding elephants, monkeys, or other wildlife on the street is not contributing anything to wildlife conservation.

“Wildlife conservation is an exacting science and photographs with tigers, street elephants or slow Loris’s actually contributes to the problem, with many animals killed each year to supply baby animals for the tourism industry”, he said.

By John Le Fevre

Thailand Travel News for August 31, 2010