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When ex-Deputy Manager of the RSPCA Stubbington Ark, Karen Earp, read about the Tiger Temple in a magazine, she wanted to know more.

Research on the internet showed that the temple not only takes in orphaned cubs found by villagers or rescued from poachers at border control, it has now become a conservation project with a breeding programme. Several cubs have been born at the temple and there are plans for future generations to be returned to the wild - although donations are needed to fund this project.

However, the research also revealed allegations that the tigers are drugged, have teeth and claws removed, are vegetarian and spend all of their time in cages that are too small. (Before you continue reading, you should know that all of these allegations proved to be completely unfounded and are obviously uninformed. Teeth and claws not removed and firmly in evidence, not vegetarian, caged some of the time in large spotless cages and absolutely NOT drugged.)

Not one for believing everything she reads, Karen decided to find out for herself. She emailed the temple to see if she and husband Alan could stay there for a week as volunteers. The answer was yes – it really was that easy!

And so begins the story of one amazing week.

Five weeks after getting the go ahead to volunteer at the ‘Tiger Temple’, we were on the road to Kanchanaburi. We booked our Thai Airway flights on the internet along with a hotel for one night in Bangkok at the start and end of the week. After a 2 ½ hour bus ride from Bangkok to Kanchanaburi, we got a truck to take us the final 40km to the temple itself.

We arrived at 2.30 in the afternoon and after checking in and buying the T-shirts that were to become our uniform for the next week, we were taken to the canyon to meet the tigers and the tourists. Most people visit the temple between 1.00pm and 4.30pm when they can see the tigers in the canyon, so visiting hours were in full swing and there were the tigers basking in the sunshine.

We quickly discovered that the temple needs most help with the visitors because the tiger staff only speak Thai and most visitors do not. We spent our first two hours advising visitors what they could and could not do, answering some questions and taking photographs of the visitors with the tigers.

During a quiet time, we were able to talk to the tigers. I had picked out Techo on the temple website as being the tiger I most wanted to meet and he was the one I got to pet first. What an amazing feeling to be up close and personal with over 300 pounds of big gentle cat.

Up until 4.30pm, the tigers are relaxed with only the occasional spat at each other. Most of the tigers are not tethered in any way. A couple of the more active tigers are on long chains for security measures, but with more than a dozen adult tigers and several dozen visitors in the same space, this can only be seen as sensible. Once we hit 4.30, the tigers get much more restless as they know they are going home.

All the tigers wear a collar and there are several leads around. At 5.00pm staff start snapping leads on collars and then hand me a lead – with a full grown tiger on the end of it. Alan gets one too. Wasn’t expecting that after only 3 hours! Plenty of tiger staff around but hey it’s a tiger and I’m walking it - or is it walking me? Actually the tigers know where they are going and seem eager to get there. Although not pulling me, I have to walk fairly fast to keep up with mine.

The final event of the visitors’ day is feeding time for all the other animals on the temple grounds. There are buffalo, boar, horses, deer, peacocks, chickens and many more that simply choose to live here. When the truck arrives, there is an amazing cacophony of animal sounds, mainly the wild boar who squeal excitedly. They are fed dry dog food and a root vegetable which we couldn’t quite identify even after tasting it.

By 6.00pm the day with the animals is over. We go to our respective rooms to clean up. We are not allowed to stay together, not even allowed to touch each other while on temple grounds. Alan is staying with the monks and I have a room in a women’s accommodation block. We meet at 7.00pm for meditation with the monks, followed by an audience with the Abbot. By 8.00pm we are off to bed and so the first day is over.

The next six days followed a basic pattern, albeit with some amazing highlights.

Up every morning at 6.30am to be with the cubs by 7.00am. Awake every morning before the alarm.

Cleaning out cages and bathing cubs until about 8.00am. “Would you mind shampooing those tiger cubs?” Would we mind! We did clean out big tiger cages one day, but because cub FaDeng fell in love with Alan, it was decided that they should spend as much time together as possible.


Breakfast		 Walk tiger cubs up to the salah (meeting hall which serves as the temple for prayer and meditation) for breakfast. Breakfast is the only meal that the monks eat. Food is donated to the monks who then share it with the staff and volunteers. Some mornings there is a lot of food and other mornings there is not so much, but there is always enough for all. Rice, curry, vegetable and fruit are ever present and sometimes cake and biscuits. We donated English biscuits and cereal bars one morning and fruit another morning.

Breakfast can take up until 10.30am. Sometimes the cubs are running wild all over the hall, sometimes they are on long leads. You don’t want to be bounced on by a 6 month old tiger cub while you are off guard and eating breakfast! They are like kittens still playing with teeth and claws all over the place. They hurt and Alan will forever have the scars to prove it!
Cub Teeth Punctures



Fiona 		During the first morning's breakfast, cub FaDeng kept trying to get Alan's attention. She would bounce towards him, flatten her ears at him, make insistent chuffing noises and generally try anything to get him to talk to her. Which, of course, he did. Fiona, who is a long-term volunteer from New Zealand, and a proper tiger handler, said she had never seen any tiger react to any person in such a fashion. Being in a Buddhist temple, it was generally decided that FaDeng knew Alan from a previous life, and she was trying to tell him who she was. During the evening audience with the Abbot, he was told of this belief and he was very happy to hear it.


After breakfast, the cubs go back to their cages and all tigers get fed. No they are not vegetarian. No cat can eat a vegetarian diet. They need a substance called taurine which if not present in their diet causes heart problems, blindness and eventually death. The tigers are fed cooked chicken, cooked beef liver and commercial cat food. Whiskas was the brand of choice while we were here! The food is cooked so that the tigers do not get a taste for blood and the Whiskas is added to replace the taurine and other essential vitamins that are cooked out. The tigers are stunningly healthy which they would not be if they were vegetarian.

At 12.30pm, the cubs again come out of their cages and the first big tiger is led out, normally Techo who is 18 months old and very placid. The cubs happily bounce all over him. This is the first sight of the tigers for early visitors.

The cubs are then taken to the canyon where they immediately launch themselves into the pool at the bottom. The big tigers are lead to the canyon one by one. They have a chance to play with each other or have a swim, before being led to their positions for photographs. Some of them want to just lie in the sun and sometimes they go to the back of the canyon to sit on the rocks or to have a swim. It depends on how many visitors are there and how many photographs are required. We are now back to answering questions and taking photographs.

All of the bad allegations on the internet prove to be completely unfounded and are obviously uninformed. Teeth and claws in evidence, not vegetarian, not caged all of the time.

Drugged? Absolutely not! These tigers have been brought up with people and they are not afraid of us, so they have no need to defend themselves by attacking us or warning us off. The tigers are in the canyon for between 4 and 5 hours which is where most visitors see them. The tigers have been fed. It is hot. They may have had a swim. They are nocturnal. They are sleepy. Watch the behaviour of your own domestic cat on a sunny day, there’s not much difference! Stay in the canyon only 20 minutes and you may not see much tiger movement at all. You may see a couple of lucky visitors get to sit next to a tiger and then the tiger’s head is placed in their lap. Hernfa and Techo will allow this and will often not even bother to stir, but not all visitors get this photograph because the tigers are not always sleepy. Stay in the canyon 4 hours and you will see much more and can see for yourself that they are not drugged.

As volunteers we were lucky to be allowed to get very close to the big tigers. I was invited to lie down next to Hernfa, who promptly put his great paw on my head. Due to my past work, I have seen many animals in a drugged state and coming round from anaesthetic. They do not know where they are and what is going on. I would not want to lie down next to a large tiger whose perceptions could be fuzzy!

Currently the tigers are caged for a lot of the time, but the cages are large and are kept spotless, although they are very bare. We would like to see some "Tiger Toys" in the cages. These need not be expensive - a fallen log to scratch, a tyre to pounce on or chew, a hessian sack to throw around and that favourite cat toy - a ball. Having puzzled over the kind of ball a tiger could play with - big enough that they couldn't swallow it and strong enough that they couldn't eat it - we came up with the idea of a bowling ball. Being caged is not an ideal situation. Then again, the only ideal situation is for a tiger to never meet a human in its lifetime. However, you must remember that these tigers are rescued. They have not been deliberately captured to be placed in a zoo or a circus. If they had not been taken in by the monks, they would be dead. They are only on show to visitors for photographs because the abbot is trying to raise enough money to build “Tiger Island”. This will be a large piece of land with a deep high-sided moat around it so that the tigers can roam free. 20 million baht is required to complete the project. This is about £300,000.

The abbot is a remarkable man with boundless compassion for all creatures. In a part of the world where animal welfare is sometimes not even on the list, he is doing all he can to help protect the tigers. To suggest that the tigers are not properly cared for is an insult to him, the other Buddhist monks and all that they believe in.

But you don’t have to take our word for it. Go and find out for yourselves!

Currently the temple is very relaxed. We sincerely hope that inevitable increased visitor numbers will not detract from the serenity of the atmosphere and will not put pressure on the staff to turn the tigers into performers. Should you see any evidence of this, please ensure your concerns are made known to the abbot, as we are sure he will always want the welfare of his tigers to come first.