Tiger Kingdom, Phuket, Thailand

Tiger Kingdom is one of Phuket’s largest tourist attractions and offers guests a chance to get up close and personal with one of the world’s most majestic and dangerous animals.

Upon arrival, you’re asked to choose which age group of tigers you’d like to interact with, ranging from cubs that seem barely out of the womb to full-grown adults. You’re required to choose one before you even get close the tigers’ pens. They also make you decide whether you want to purchase a photography package, wherein an employee takes photos of you posing with the tigers and puts them on a CD, before you go in.

Once inside, you’re immediately looking down a corridor full of cages with tigers of varying sizes lounging or pacing in circles. The cages aren’t nearly as big as you’d expect for animals of this size, except for two central pens that included a watering hole and grass. The rest were just bars and concrete.

I only chose to pose with the cubs (you can pick another package afterward, if you’d like), but was able to walk around and see the other tigers before and after.

Once inside the cage they direct you to pose in certain ways with the tigers while also dragging them around by their legs and, in a few instances, whacking them on the head with a stick if they don’t immediately comply.

Honestly, the entire affair was heartbreaking and I was ashamed to be a part of it. It’s not something I’d ever recommend to someone who cares even an ounce about the welfare and safety of animals.

Guests were allowed to practically lie on top of some of the bigger tigers and it seemed obvious they were drugged. That’s the only explanation for how their “handlers” were able to keep them from injuring anyone. You’d be better off visiting a responsible zoo or safari if you want to see tigers in their natural habitat, free and behaving in a natural way.

Tiger Kingdom Phuket

118/88 Moo 7

Kathu, Thailand

66 76 527 662