NEWS AND VIEWS – THAILAND: This is probably a first in the history of the purchase of purebred cats. In Thailand assets accrued by criminals as the proceeds of crime are sold at auction to fund, I presume, the criminal justice system and of course to punish the criminals. In the past, animal assets have been auctioned such as cows and buffaloes. The authorities say that this is the first time pet cats have been auctioned in this way. It took place at an animal shelter in Rayong province on April 23, 2021.
It provides us, in the West, with an insight as to the value of purebred cats in Thailand. This is six purebred cats and the person who bought them, that is the winner at auction, is a well-known cat lover with a big Internet following (3m on Facebook), Nutch Prasopsin. The amount in Thai currency is 100,000 baht.
The cats were owned by a drug dealing woman who abandoned them. They were seized last month. There is a crackdown against drug trafficking in eastern Thailand. It appears that they were not sterilised because Prasopsin has said that she will have them sterilised and vaccinated and she confirmed that she will care for them properly. There were nine bidders at the auction last Friday in Rayong. It is reported that Prasopsin’s Facebook followers helped her raise the money.
She said:
“I was very excited. I had very much hoped that the cats would end up in my care. I’ve been following their status since the very first day..”
Here is Prasopsin on Facebook:
ซื้อดื่มให้ตัวเอง
Posted by Nutch Prasopsin on Tuesday, April 13, 2021
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The Thai Narcotics Control Board spokesperson, Porntip Jampong, said: “This is the first time that we’ve had cats and they’re pets that many people love so some people may raise questions about it. But they’re suspected criminal assets and we have to deal with them according to procedure and auction them off.”
On the basis that each cat has the same or similar value, the lady in question got a pretty good deal because each cat cost her US$530 which is possibly considerably less and she would have paid from a breeder. I would expect there to be very few breeders of these cats in Thailand. I wonder where the drug trafficker got them from? Some breeders ship internationally.
Postscript: it seems that Prasopsin is disliked strongly in some areas of Thailand because she is a cat rescuer. It seems also that she gets some hateful comments on social media because of this.
The story comes from Republicworld.com and News Brig. There is one website which tells us that there are cat breeders in Thailand but it is nothing like cat breeding in the West. This confirms my initial thoughts.
