{"id":206777,"date":"2025-12-23T12:19:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T12:19:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/206777\/"},"modified":"2025-12-23T12:19:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T12:19:06","slug":"starving-lions-and-bears-found-in-raid-on-border-casino","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/206777\/","title":{"rendered":"Starving lions and bears found in raid on border casino"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p data-start=\"440\" data-end=\"621\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thethaiger.com\/news\/national\/thai-marine-officer-loses-foot-to-cambodian-mine-near-border\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Thai marines<\/a> raiding a Chinese-linked casino in Ban Tha Sen, Trat province, discovered lions and bears confined in cages yesterday, December 22, reportedly left without food or water for several days.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"623\" data-end=\"1077\">The discovery was made during a sweep of the Thamoda casino area and surrounding properties by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marines.navy.mi.th\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Royal Thai Marine<\/a> forces. The compound, located in Ban Tha Sen near the Thai-Cambodian border, had reportedly been used by Cambodian military personnel as a command post.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"623\" data-end=\"1077\">Acting on reports about <a href=\"https:\/\/thethaiger.com\/news\/national\/thai-tourism-ministry-cracks-down-on-foreign-led-tour-businesses\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">foreign<\/a> operations in the region, troops entered a compound where they found two lions and three bears locked in metal cages inside one of the buildings. The <a href=\"https:\/\/thethaiger.com\/news\/national\/burapa-task-force-animals-border-evacuation\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">animals<\/a> appeared severely malnourished, reportedly having gone without food for at least three to four days.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1079\" data-end=\"1348\">Initial reports suggest the owner is believed to be a Chinese national connected to a <a href=\"https:\/\/thethaiger.com\/news\/national\/thai-air-force-bombs-casino-near-trat-border-amid-escalating-clashes\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">casino<\/a> network operating in the area. Thai troops, unable to safely enter the cages due to the animals\u2019 aggressive behaviour, threw in food and water to ease their hunger temporarily.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1350\" data-end=\"1637\">The raid followed recent <a href=\"https:\/\/thethaiger.com\/news\/national\/another-thai-soldier-dies-in-sisaket-border-clash-bringing-death-toll-to-21\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">violent clashes<\/a> in the region, which may have led to the animals being abandoned without care. Military officers have since contacted the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation to assist in the urgent rescue and relocation of the animals.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1639\" data-end=\"1891\">Officials said the operation will likely proceed today, December 23, once the area has been cleared of landmines and safe access is confirmed. Due to the size and structure of the cages, heavy machinery will be required to extract the animals safely.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In a related story, a 60 year old <a href=\"https:\/\/thethaiger.com\/news\/national\/bearly-survived-thai-fishermans-face-torn-off-in-horror-mauling\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Thai fisherman survived a vicious bear attack<\/a> that left much of his face torn away. Believed to have been mauled by an Asiatic black bear, he underwent multiple groundbreaking surgeries to rebuild his face using donor cartilage and skin grafts. Within two months, he was able to breathe, eat, and regain basic functions. The case, hailed as a medical triumph, was recently featured in a surgical journal.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/thethaiger.com\/news\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Latest Thailand News<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/thethaiger.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Home<\/a>\/<a href=\"https:\/\/thethaiger.com\/news\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">News<\/a>\/<a href=\"https:\/\/thethaiger.com\/news\/national\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Thailand News<\/a>\/Starving lions and bears found in raid on border casino<a class=\"post-cat tie-cat-102303\" href=\"https:\/\/thethaiger.com\/news\/eastern-thailand\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Eastern Thailand News<\/a><a class=\"post-cat tie-cat-9\" href=\"https:\/\/thethaiger.com\/news\/national\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Thailand News<\/a>  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thai marines raiding a Chinese-linked casino in Ban Tha Sen, Trat province, discovered lions and bears confined in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206778,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[264,61,60,82,108306,108305,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-206777","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-animals","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-thai-cambodian-border","13":"tag-trat","14":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}