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(CNN) - More than half of the tigers rescued from a Thai temple three years ago have died due to infectious diseases and inbreeding-related diseases.
In 2016, 147 tigers were removed from the controversial “Tiger Temple” of Thailand in Kanchanaburi province, west of the country's capital, Bangkok, which became a tourist attraction where visitors could pose with the big resident cats.
But on Monday, the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP) of Thailand announced that 86 of the 147 tigers rescued from the Buddhist temple had died. Tigers are classified as endangered species by the World Wildlife Fund.
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Thai veterinarians sedated the tigers at the Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua temple on June 1, 2016, in Kanchanaburi province, Thailand.
According to a DNP press release, tigers died due to two reasons: a respiratory disease and canine distemper virus, a serious and highly infectious disease that often affects dogs, but has been found in a wide variety of large Felines and other species.
The department's deputy general manager, Prakit Wongsriwattanakul, said in a statement that most of the rescued tigers were inbred.
When the tigers were removed in June 2016, they looked "pretty healthy," said Adisorn Noochdumrong, deputy general manager of DNP at the time. The tigers were taken to a new home in a government sanctuary in Ratchaburi province, about 90 km south of Kanchanaburi province, where the temple was located.
Waiting for disaster to happen
According to Edwin Wiek, director and founder of the Thai NGO Wildlife Friends Foundation (WFF), the rescue of the tigers was a “disaster that was waiting to happen” since the authorities did a job that they had not planned properly and did not listen to the advice of Organizations like yours.
Wiek said that WFF had suggested three years ago that puppies and female tigers should be separated, and that all tigers should be sterilized. Instead, they kept the tigers in small cages, where diseases could easily spread.
"The authorities should have asked for help from outside, but instead they insisted on doing all the work themselves," he said. "I hope lessons are learned from this case, but we will have to wait and see."
CNN has contacted the Thai authorities for comment.
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Why were the tigers rescued?
Some of the tigers were rescued after a spooky discovery.
In June 2016, authorities discovered the remains of 40 newborn tiger cubs in freezers in the temple. A cow horn, a deer antler and the body of a binturong, a wildcat of Southeast Asia, were also discovered.
The Wildlife Conservation Office (WCO) began investigating the temple, and if it was smuggling parts of tigers. As part of a 2001 agreement with the WCO, the temple was allowed to take care of the tigers as long as they were not used for profit or for reproduction. But the authorities were pressured to take strong action after tourists complained that they had been attacked by tigers as they walked among them.
Shortly after the discovery of the puppies' bodies, authorities armed with calming guns attempted to capture the tigers, who were "wandering everywhere," according to the WCO.
Five men, including three monks, were charged with possession of parts of endangered animals without permission.
- Akanksha Sharma and Sareena Dayaram contributed to this report.
Tigers
