{"id":602617,"date":"2026-04-12T19:21:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T19:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/602617\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T19:21:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T19:21:12","slug":"bangkok-post-b50000-bounty-on-person-who-beheaded-dugong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/602617\/","title":{"rendered":"Bangkok Post – B50,000 bounty on person who beheaded dugong"},"content":{"rendered":"

PUBLISHED : 12 Apr 2026 at 18:01<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"National<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNational park rangers collect the carcass of the beheaded dugong in Phangnga province on April 9, 2026. (Photo supplied)\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The Ministry for Natural Resources and Environment has offered a 50,000 baht reward for information leading to the arrest of the person who beheaded the dugong found dead on a beach in Phangnga province.<\/p>\n

Deputy permanent secretary Padet Laithong announced the bounty on Sunday.<\/p>\n

The headless dugong was found on the shoreline of Ao Tha Khao bay in Koh Yao district of the southern province\u00a0on Thursday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to Mr Padet, an examination of the carcass concluded the marine mammal had died from a long-standing intestinal inflammation and starvation, and was surgically beheaded two to 24 hours later.<\/p>\n

The person who took the animal’s head was a specialist in dugong anatomy and use of the instruments required. The neck was cut through cleanly with a sharp tool.<\/p>\n

The offender was liable to a prison term of up to five years and\/or fine of 500,000 baht for possessing the carcass of a protected animal.<\/p>\n

Pinsak Suraswadi, director-general of marine and coastal resources, said the remaining carcass was 233 centimetres long and weighed 120 kilogrammes. DNA sampled were being taken to assist in the search for the culprit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He said the dugong population in Thailand was now very low, having fallen from 248 in 2023 to 114-150 last year and this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PUBLISHED : 12 Apr 2026 at 18:01 National park rangers collect the carcass of the beheaded dugong in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":602618,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[293497,293493,64,63,293492,293499,75,293494,293496,293495,128,3725,338,293498],"class_list":{"0":"post-602617","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-animal-cruelty-investigation","9":"tag-ao-tha-khao-bay","10":"tag-au","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-dugong-carcass","13":"tag-dugong-population-decline","14":"tag-environment","15":"tag-koh-yao-district","16":"tag-marine-resources-thailand","17":"tag-protected-animal-thailand","18":"tag-science","19":"tag-thailand","20":"tag-wildlife","21":"tag-wildlife-protection-law"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=602617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/602618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}