Bangkok's Pata Zoo has been called a "hell for animals" by campaigners who want to close it.
THERE IS a gorilla on the seventh floor of a department store in Bangkok.
King Kong spends his days alone, moving little. There are no trees in his 15 by 10 metre concrete enclosure, just a tyre and a few ropes hanging from the low ceiling.
He spends long hours sitting at the front of his pen, hands gripping the iron bars.
Thailand's unstable political situation means it is likely that this pair of endangered orang-utans will live out the rest of their lives behind bars.
Ten metres away, a penguin is alone in an airconditioned pen, standing on tiles next to a pool of water, smaller than a bath. Just a few years ago there were a dozen penguins. Only this one survives.
Bangkok's Pata Zoo sits atop the store on a busy road in the northern suburbs.
Crammed into cages and pens across two floors of the ageing building are more than 200 species - a menagerie of pythons, turtles, flamingos, monkeys, leopards, tigers, bears, and even a Shetland pony. From the rooftop enclosures, you can see the advertising billboards and office blocks next door, and hear the ceaseless traffic below.
Animals, such as the deer pictured here, have no room to exercise.
Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand director Edwin Wiek wants the zoo closed.
"Basically, it is an animal prison on top of a shopping mall,'' he said. "The space is too small, the animals have very little room, there is very little sunlight, the enclosures are dirty, they smell bad, and people are coming past all day, getting far too close to the animals, which makes the animals extremely stressed.
"In 200 steps you can see 50 different species. Most people know that this is not an acceptable way to keep animals. It is a hell for animals."
Thailand, like much of south-east Asia, faces myriad animal welfare issues.
Cockfighting remains a popular spectator sport, elephants are still put to work on traffic-choked streets and controversy surrounds the popular monk-run Tiger Temple in Kanchanaburi, where visitors can pay to pat tigers that critics say are cowed into submission.
As well, the Thai capital remains a hub for smuggling animals across the region and the world. Last week a sedated tiger cub was discovered in a bag at Suvarnabhumi Airport disguised among soft animal toys.
There used to be six penguins in this small, tiled enclosure: today only one survives.
But Pata Zoo, as much as any of these, represents the underlying, fundamental problem: a lack of legislation regarding animal welfare.
It is breaking no laws. The animals were all legally obtained, and the zoo has recently had its licence extended.
"There is no rule or regulation saying how much space each animal needs," director Kanit Sermsirimongkol says through an interpreter.
"It's not about space, it's about the way in which you treat the animals.
"The space that we provide to the animals is enough for them to freely move around, and to exercise. The zoo has a vet to take care of the animals. And we have many species of animals successfully breeding, that shows the animals are healthy and well managed."
Mr Kanit says the zoo is a respite for people looking to escape the "concrete jungle" of Bangkok and "reconnect with nature". He says the animals are especially popular with children.
Earlier this year, Thailand's Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment declared its support in principle for a Universal Declaration on Animal Welfare, and a draft Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act has been written, but in Thailand's unstable political climate, the wherewithal to have it passed into legislation is lacking.
"There is an animal welfare law in Thailand, but it is very simple, very ineffective, and is rarely enforced," Mr Wiek says.
"It says only that if you torture an animal, you can be fined. And the maximum is 1000 baht ($A36). That's not a tool, that's a joke."
The issue of unsatisfactory conditions in private zoos is a problem throughout south-east Asia, Mr Wiek says, particularly in small, village or family-run zoos across Vietnam, Indonesia, and Cambodia.
