Boxing orangutans a throwback as Thailand warms to animal rights

Bangkok

Boxing gloves raised, two orangutans enter a ring at a Thai zoo, a spectacle that fascinates locals and foreigners alike but sits increasingly at odds in a nation slowly embracing animal welfare.

Every morning hundreds of tourists visit Safari World, a large zoo on the outskirts of Bangkok, to see apes perform a show parodying human behaviour -- in particular our predilection for violence, sex and alcohol.

Female orangutans, decked in bikini tops and miniskirts, pretend to seduce monkey musicians as rowdy ape fans drink beer and throw cans at the two orangutans play-fighting.

"It's one of the funniest things I've ever seen," Aisha, a 23-year-old tourist from Sri Lanka sayd. "It's incredible what they're capable of."

But others are less enthusiastic. "I don't like it at all," says Erwin Newton, 30, from the United States. "I don't understand, what is interesting in making animals behave in this violent, dirty way."

To outsiders, Thailand's treatment of animals can appear confusingly contradictory. In this deeply Buddhist country it is not unusual to see pampered pooches pushed around in prams or entire temples providing sanctuary to stray cats and dogs.

Yet dogs might also be on a dinner table in the northeast of Thailand while the kingdom -- a renowned animal-trafficking hub -- retains its long tradition of blood sports such as cock and bull fighting.

However, lately the country's animal fighting industry is also trying to make itself more humane.

"Even in animal fights, there must be rules," says Chaichan Laohasiripanya, Secretary-General of the Thai Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

"They must consider the health of the animal, the length of the fight," she said.

Acts of cruelty towards animals -- especially dogs -- often receive widespread publicity. In July the arrest of a village headman who killed his neighbour's pet dog after an argument was front-page news in Thai media for days.